Broken Hearts and Mending
by xxEagle07xx
Summary: Ryoma unexpectedly moves back to Japan 2 years later along with an American girl. Who is this girl and what's her story about coming to live in Japan with Ryoma. Multiple POV and OC. First ever Fanfic so R & R please.
1. The Return of the Prince

**Disclaimer** I don't own Prince of Tennis or any characters

**CHAPTER ONE: RETURN OF THE PRINCE**

**Momo's POV**

I raced down the hall, excited about the news that I just heard from Tomo. He was finally back, after the National Championship Ryoma had went back to the U.S. I had thought that he was going to live over there for good, but now he was back.

"Hey Viper, did you hear that the squirt was back. We should go over and see him." Kauro Kaido looked at me and shook his head.

"Today? I can't, I have a date with Hattori." He didn't really look like he was sorry, but with this guy you never knew.

"Well I'm going to go tell the rest of the guys. I bet Kunimitsu will be especially pleased." I laughed and raced off to the tennis courts. Back in middle school we had won the National Title at Seishun Academy for boys tennis. Next year we were going to be an unstoppable force if Ryoma were to join us agian. We were still hurting bad from Taka not joining the high school team, but instead he was taking classes to take over his family's sushi shop.

I found Oishi, Eiji, Shusuke, Sadaharu and Tezuka all at the tennis courts doing drills.

"Hey guys," I yelled as soon I was in hearing distance. "Guess who's back? Squirt, and it sounds like he's here to stay."

"I thought he moved back to America for good?" Eiji said not serving his ball.

"I did too." I said thinking about it. "But whatever. Who wants to make a visit over there? He moved back into the same house. I guess his cousin must've been there holding down the fort?"  
"I'm down." Shiuchiro said. Eiji nodded.

"What's all the commotion?" Tezuka asked, coming from court A.

"The squirts back." Eiji smiled. "We're going to go see him after practice. You want in?"  
"Of course I do." Said Shusuke, following behind the captain.

"You can also include me in the matter as well." Sadaharu said pushing his glasses up onto his nose.

"Very well. Now that we figured out we are all going to see Ryoma, can we get back to practice?" Tezuka said in a monotone voice. I guess I would've been worried if he had shown some sign of happiness. I shrugged and headed to court B.

I couldn't wait to show him how much I had improved. It was time I brought his ego back down to earth.


	2. The Prince's Cousin

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Prince of Tennis or any characters

**Chasity's POV**

It had taken me all day, but I finally got my bed set up. I sighed, looking around at my new room. I had known Nanjiro since I was born, but there was only so much loneliness I could handle. There was a soft knock on my door.

"Hey." It was Nanjiro. I smiled at him, my best lying smile.

"Hi." I said.

"How's the unpacking going?" He asked softly.

"About as good as it's going to get." I laughed.

"You excited about starting school tomorrow?" He asked, coming into my bedroom and sitting on my fold up chair.

"It's a lot to take in all at once." I sighed. I dug in an almost empty box and pulled out a picture of me, Alice and Brian. I took a deep breath and placed the picture back in the box and I was pretty sure that that didn't go unnoticed by Nanjiro.

"Well, Seishun has really good tennis teams. You thinking about joining?" He asked, looking around the room and smiling. I turned away so that I didn't have to see the expression on his face.

"I'm giving up tennis." I said, quietly. I heard his intake of breath and knew that he had heard me.

"But, you…" he started.

"It's my choice, and I am." I told him, no wavering in my voice.

"But," He started again. "Are you sure this is what you really want." I knew he was confused at my choice and he probably thought that I was basing my choice on the outcome of that accident, which I was, but I knew the consequences better than anyone.

"My dreams of becoming a pro tennis player died in that car crash." I told him, angry with myself.

"You can't base your dreams off of that accident." He said kindly.

"Then why did you give up on your dream?" I asked, harshly.

"Because there was something more that I wanted. I don't deprive myself of tennis either." He said angrily. "I play every day because it's a part my entity, it helps define me."

"I can't." I said, my voice cracking at last. "I don't want it to be part of my life any longer." I blinked the tears away and we sat there in silence for a minute.

"I know that it doesn't make any sense now," Nanjiro said, "But tennis is so much a part of you that you're going to feel that pull and you won't be able to resist it." Just then, the sound of the doorbell rang throughout the house.

"It's because of tennis that I lost everything that was important to me. I wish I had never picked up a racket. I'll go get the door." And I left him sitting in my room. I quickly wiped the tear that fell from my face and answered the door.

"Can I help you?" I asked in English. There was a mob of Japanese boy's standing on my doorstep. The one at the front looked confused and turned to the people behind him.

"We're looking for Ryoma Echizen." A tall boy with square glasses said in English, he had to be the tallest one of the group.

"Ah." I said. I turned around and yelled in Japanese "Ryoma, some guys are here to see you." I looked at all of them curiously. We were only here for less than half a day and already there was a mob here to see the little guy.

"Aren't you mister popular?" I laughed when he came walking from his bedroom. His smile was a small one, but to me it was like Christmas had come early. I hid my smile by looking down at the floor.

"Hey guys." He greeted them all. There was a chorus of hey's and how's it going. "Hey Alex, these are the guys from the Seishun Tennis team." Even though he didn't show it outwardly, I knew he was happy on the inside. So these were the guys he went to nationals with a year ago. Even though they didn't look like it, they must've been a pretty hard core group.

"Hi." I smiled. "I have some unpacking to do, so if you'll excuse me." I tried to get away, but Ryoma wasn't having it.

"Why don't you join us?" He asked.

"Wish I could," I sighed dramatically. "But I still have to get situated for tomorrow, starting school and all." I shrugged and turned to run back to my room before anything more was said. I heard faintly Rinko and Nanjiro greet the boys and it sounded like a lot of laughs.

In my room, I gathered up everything of mine that had to do with tennis and taped the box shut. I stared at the box for a minute thinking maybe I was being weak by giving up.

"_Tennis is more than a sport." Brian said, twirling a racket while I poured over my music sheet. _

"_Tell that to dad." I laughed. _

"_I saw the game you played Jake the other day at the court. Do you know how long it took me to beat him? And you just come prancing in and beat him without ever seeing his style of play." _

"_He talks big, but his power shots really are weak." I picked out the piece of music that I wanted to play for my recital. _

"_Why don't you play tennis?" Brian asked, now he was flipping the racket and bouncing the ball on each side. _

"_Because you're dad's golden boy and I remember what it was like playing 2 years ago, you are all he cares about. He doesn't even pay attention to my game." _

"_Then don't play for dad. Play for you." He pushed. _

"_I am playing for me." I said, waving the music in the air. _

"_Why are you so afraid of tennis?" Brian shouted. I was surprised at his anger, but I was more surprised that he was yelling at me. _

"_I'm not afraid." I said carefully. _

"_Because you'll be great, that's what dad is pissed about. Because you would rather be normal then stand out in the crowd. You have an amazing knack for Tennis and you don't even want to compete." _

"_What's wrong with being what I want to be?" I shouted. "I love music and neither you nor dad will listen to me. In your world there is nothing but tennis but I have a news flash for you, I'm not living in your world. I want my own things so quit trying to shove your choices down my throat." Brian opened his mouth to say something no doubt, but just then Alice walked into our bedroom and rolled her eyes. _

"_You 2 are arguing again?" She asked._

"_He started it." I pouted staring at my twin sister as she picked up her racket and looked at Brian. _

"_C'mon brother, we've got practice. Dad will flip a lid if we're late again." Brian didn't take his eyes off me but I went back to looking through my music. _

"Earth to Alex." Ryoma was waving his hand in front of my face and I finally looked up from the box.

"Yeah?" I asked, pushing the box aside. "Sorry." I laughed.

"We're all going to head down to the courts for a couple of games, you want to join us?" I looked at the box and my resolve didn't waver.

"I'm not going to play tennis anymore." I told him. He looked at me with pity in his eyes and that just made me angry. Why did everyone look at me like that, I knew what I was doing, I had given this a lot of thought.

"Don't do this because of the accident." Ryoma said, leaving my room. At the door he paused. "Do this because it's really something that you don't want to do."

I swallowed the lump in my throat and picked up the box to put it up in my closet. He was sounding like Brian more and more each day.

And I hated it.


	3. Meetings and Mishaps

**Disclaimer: **I don't own anything The Prince of Tennis or any Characters.

**Shusuke's POV**

"Game and set, won by Shusuke." I walked to the net and shook the hand of Aizawa, the 10th grader that I was playing.

"Good game." He said, shaking my hand.

"You too." I walked over to the bench and grabbed a towel to wipe my forehead off with. I walked back to court A where they were doing color routines and found Tezuka watching some of the Seniors play.

"Intimidated?" I asked as the 2 best seniors on our team rallied back and forth. Kunimitsu didn't say anything, so I shrugged it off.

A whistle blew in the distance and the 10th graders who didn't make the team started picking up all the tennis balls.

"It was nice to see Ryoma yesterday." I said, me and Kunimitsu making our way to the boys locker room. "He hasn't missed a step since the nationals when we won."

"He's got tremendous talent just waiting to be used." Kunimitsu said. I smiled thinking back to our game in the rain that one day and I instantly knew what he was talking about.

It didn't take me long to shower up and I made my way to the Wall where everyone usually met up before and after school.

The Wall had just become our normal spot to meet each other since last year when that was the designated spot to meet up. It soon came without saying that that was where we were going to be if you needed anything.

"Hey." Everyone greeted me when I walked around the corner and into view. Eiji and Shuichiro were bent over a piece of paper working on something, Sadaharu was reading a chapter out of an English book, Kauro was talking with his girlfriend Hatorri and Momo was talking with another girl from his class.

"I see Momo wastes no time," I laughed with Eiji and Shuichiro.

"He's not the only one." Eiji smiled meanly at Shuichiro.  
"Eiji." Shuichiro said, pushing him almost off the wall.

"What am I missing?" I asked, confused.

"A pretty brunette."Eiji said laughing dodging Shuichiro's attempt to swat at him.

"Don't tell me." I said. "Shuichiro finally found a girl that peaks his interest?" Shuichiro blushed and that had said enough on it's own.

"Whoa. What?" Momo said stopping his sentence right in the middle and looking at the 3 of us.

"Oishi has a girlfriend?" Kaoru leaned in and we were all crowding around for details.

"You guys wouldn't know her." Oishi said, trying to back away. "She doesn't even go here."

"All the more reason to tell us about her." I pushed. His face was a nice shade of red now and that made us wonder how serious he really was about her and why he had never mentioned her before.

"Where did you meet her?" Kaoru asked.

"Have you met her parents yet?" Momo asked.

"Where was your first date?" Sadaharu asked.

"Have you kissed her yet?" All movement stopped and everyone looked at me like I had committed a crime. "I was just wondering." I said, smiling meanly.

"It's not that big of a deal." Shuichiro said, trying to brush it off.

"If me getting a girlfriend was a big deal and getting harassed was then you have to go through the same treatment." Kaoru said.

"Yes." Sadaharu said. "I would also like to hear about what attributes of hers drew your attention." He continued to try and weasel his way out of stuff until the first bell rang.

"Don't think you got out of this." I said picking up my bag and heading off towards my first class. I was laughing about it when I rounded the corner and ran smack dab into someone.

I tried to twist my body weight so that we would land sideways, but apparently so did the other person, in which I ended up on top of. I opened my eyes to see myself staring into the eyes of a very beautiful brunette.

"I'm so sorry." I said, captivated by her piercing hazel eyes. "I didn't mean to run into you."

"Oh no," She said, wincing. "It was entirely my fault."

"Are you alright?" I asked. She looked right into my eyes and said very seriously.

"I would be better if your arm wasn't digging into my back." I felt my face grow instantly hot and I rolled off of her quickly, helping her sit up.

"I'm sorry." I said once again, not being able to look at her. There were papers scattered around us and I began to grab at them, my face feeling so hot that I couldn't stand it.

"I'm new here." She said, also picking up her papers. "So that makes it more my fault then anything." I looked up at her and she smiled at me the most brilliant white smile I had ever seen. Instantly my face grew hot again and I had to wonder what was wrong with me?

"Umm." I said standing up and brushing myself off, "Did you need help with anything?"

"I'm headed in that general direction." She told me pointing down the hall in the opposite direction. I looked at her and I had the feeling that I had met her some place before. And then it hit me.

"Ryoma's cousin." I practically shouted. She jumped and for the 2nd time that day I felt stupid. "I didn't mean to shout, but I just remembered. You're Ryoma's cousin."

"That I am." She laughed uncomfortably.

"I'm Shusuke. Shusuke Fuji." I held out my hand for her to shake and she smiled at me.

"I'm Alex Cross." She said. "Ryoma's cousin."

"So now that we have found something in common, I don't feel so awkward inviting you to lunch." I said.

"How do you know we have the same lunch time?" She asked. I thought about it and shrugged.

"I don't. It was just an assumption." She looked at her schedule and frowned. "Something wrong?"

"Just getting things figured out." She said. "I have 4th hour lunch."

"My assumption stands to be correct." I told her. "So lunch?"

"Sure." She said, still looking at her schedule. "Um, 3rd hour I have Math with Nakamura sensei." I thought about it.

"Wait there for me and I'll come get you." I told her as the 2nd bell rang. Shit, I was late.

"Alright." She said. I smiled and took off running towards World History wishing that it was lunch time already.


	4. Her First Day

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Prince of Tennis or any characters

**Alex's POV**

The first 2 classes weren't so bad. It was the 3rd hour that I could tell really quickly that I was going to have problems in.

"I can't believe on your first day here you caught the attention of Shusuke Fuji." A small Japanese girl sat next to me. "I'm Akane Takashiga." She said, smiling.

"Alex Cross." I said taking my seat next to her.

"So how was it?" She asked, excited. I couldn't help looking at her confused. "Shusuke Fuji landed on top of you and didn't move for a whole 35 seconds. It must've been its own little slice of heaven." She sighed. It was official, she was crazy.

"Umm. It kind of hurt." I said honestly. The smile on her face froze for a second. "I mean, his arm was kind of digging into my back at the time." Akane looked at me like I was the luckiest girl in the world.

"Oh how I wish it could've been me."Akane said dreamily.

"Surely it would be much better to be pinned under Tezuka Kunimitsu." I turned in my seat to see a girl with a snide smirk on her face. "The name's Yuna. Yuna Watanabe."

"I'm telling you both," I said, a little annoyed. "It hurt. Kind of fell hard. And not to mention when you go down you have another 175 pounds added on top of that. I would rather pass."

"Attention class." The teacher started off with a review from yesterday and I instantly knew that I wasn't too far behind. It was obvious that I was going to have to have a tutor to help me catch up, but I would worry about that when I was sure how far behind I really was.

"So when do you have lunch?" Akane asked me as we walked out into the hall.

"Next." I said, looking around.

"Ahh." She was disappointed. "I wish I had lunch with you." I shrugged my shoulders and stood there waiting for him to come.

"Alex." I heard my name being called. I looked up to see Shusuke with 2 other boys who were at the house yesterday. I smiled weakly and waved.

"Oh my gosh." Akane said, grabbing my arm. "You also know Oishi and Tezuka?"

"I don't really know them."I told her. "Shusuke just asked me for lunch." Akane's eyes grew bigger.

"Oh I really really wish I had your lunch hour." She kept glancing at Shusuke out of the corner of her eyes. "I'll see you tomorrow." I felt sad for the girl, she looked so dejected. I made my way over to the guys wondering if she was going to be o.k?

"Hi," I said when I reached them.

"This is Kunimitsu Tezuka and Shuichiro Oishi." I smiled and shook both of their hands. "Guy's this is Alex Cross. Ryoma's cousin."

"Nice to meet you." Shuichiro said.

"Nice to meet you too. Shall we head to lunch?" Tezuka said, his expression never changing. I nodded and I seen the angry glare of Yuna Watanabe. I didn't give it a second thought, but headed off to lunch with the boys.

I noticed on the way that a lot of girls said hi to the 3 of them as we made our way the lunch room. They said hi back and occasionally stopped to talk to a couple people, but I could tell that they didn't really socialize on the highest level.

When we got to the cafeteria Shusuke helped me order and we took a seat at the middle of the cafeteria. We were soon joined by 4 other guys and I was quickly introduced.

"Kaoru Kaido, Takeshi Momoshiro, Sadaharu Inui and Eiji Kikumaru." Shusuke said. Each boy waved when he was introduced and I smiled and waved back. "Guys, this is Ryoma's cousin." They all went back to talking and I observed them a little bit.

It's not like they were antisocial because they did talk to people around them, but it was more like an acquaintance kind of thing. They really talked to each other and joked.

"So do you want to come check us out after school?" Momoshiro said, leaning across the table to ask me.

"And what is it that I'm checking out?" I asked.

"Our tennis of course." Kaoru said. Momoshiro smacked him on the back of the head and I had to stifle a laugh.

"Just to see our mad skills." Kikumaru said twirling a spoon between his fingers.

"Um. I can't. I still have a lot of unpacking to do." I told them. "Maybe some other time?"

"Now that your hanging out with us, it's a given that you're going to see them eventually." Shusuke said. I shrugged and wondered if this was really going to be my new set of friends. I guess I could've done worse. They seemed really popular and from the jist of things now, they were all nice.

"So what brings you to live in Japan?" Sadaharu asked. All the boys attention was on me now and I felt uncomfortable.

"Just looking to try something new." I said. All the boys looked confused, like that wasn't the answer that they were expecting.

"So do you play any tennis?" Kikumaru asked. I thought about it and shook my head no.

"I always just liked to watch Ryoma, he was so good."

"So how long have you known him?" Oishi asked.

"Since before I could walk. We practically grew up together. We always tell everyone that we're cousins, but we aren't really related."

They continued to ask me questions until the bell rang and we all headed to different classes.

"What class do you have next?" Shusuke asked. I looked at my schedule.

"Japanese history." I told him, scrunching my nose. I was definitely going to need help with that.

"That's by my class. I can walk you there." Kikumaru said, turning to look at us.

"Thanks." I smiled at him. He said something to Oishi and I let him lead the way to our classes.

"Tennis is a really big deal to us." He said almost like he was embarrassed.

"It's alright." I laughed. "You don't have to tell me twice."

"No doubt." He said. "Being related to Ryoma and all." I was thinking of completely different people, but it made sense that way too. Outside my classroom, Kikumaru grabbed my elbow.

"Make sure you make time to come see us play." He said. I smiled at him and pretended to think about it.

"Well now that you guys are my friends, I guess I have no choice." He let go of my elbow and I went into my class.

I smiled to myself feeling good that he really wanted me to come watch his game. Maybe I would make time tomorrow?


	5. Tennis Practice and Tempers

**Eiji's POV**

It had been a week and Alex still hadn't come to see us practice. I was just thinking of asking her again when Shuichiro's hand waved in front of my face trying to get my attention.

"Earth to Eiji." He said. I looked at him and laughed.

"Sorry man. Was just thinking about what I'm going to do about my project." I shrugged it off.

"Do me favor and don't lie to me man." Shuichiro scoffed. "I know that you've been stressing about Alex." Apparently I was not conspicuous enough.

"I just wish she would come and see us practice." I huffed, opening my notebook and starting on my notes for class.

"Us play? Or you?" Shuichiro asked.

"What's that supposed to mean?" I asked. "Of course it means us, we're a team so she can't really watch one without watching the other."  
"Yeah." Shuichiro said, skeptical.

"Hey guys." Shusuke said, coming to our table in the library and taking the empty seat next me. "Alex just agreed to come to practice after school."

"Really?" I asked feeling happy that I could finally show off my skills.

"Yeah. She told me that she has some time since their all going out to dinner tonight. Some special occasion or something like that."

"Finally." I laughed.

"Mind playing a game with me today?" Shusuke asked me. I shrugged and couldn't help thinking he was going to be sorry that he ever stepped onto the court.

We were soon joined by Tezuka and Sadaharu and we all started studying.

* * *

"Man, I can't wait to play." I said, bouncing on the balls of my feet and stretching.

"What's with you?" Momo asked, pulling his shirt on over his head and grabbing his racket.

"Alex is finally coming to watch us play." Shuichiro said, smiling like it was some big secret.

"She is?" Momo asked, obviously getting pumped up too. "It's about time, I can show off how good I am."

"You're not the only one." Shusuke said, coming into the locker room and throwing his stuff into his locker. "Today should be quite interesting."

Me, Shuichiro and Momo headed to court A where Kunimitsu was waiting with the captain. I looked around and felt a flutter in my stomach as I noticed Alex sitting on some bleachers by herself. She waved to the 3 of us and we all waved back.

When everyone was lined up, the captain gave us his usual pep-talk and sent us on our way. The first half of practice was a free practice where you did pretty much what you wanted to train and then the 2nd half the captain had certain drills we all had to run.

Me and Shusuke headed to play on court B while Kunimistu and the captain played on court A. Momo and Kaoru were getting ready to play on court C and Shuichiro and Sadaharu were putting on ankle weights and were going to do some laps.

"Are you ready?" I asked Shusuke, bouncing the ball experimentally while waiting for his answer.

"Ready when you are Golden Boy." He stuck his tongue out and I just smiled. I served and waited for his return, he smashed the ball and I ran slightly to the left.

"Ha." I shouted as he missed the ball.

"15-love." Arai called. I served again and this time we rallied back and forth before I made the mistake of smashing it and he pulled his triple counter Tsubame Gaishi.

"15-15" He called.

As the game went on, it got more and more intense. I tried to poach and he shot the balls right to my feet and I was forced to do a drop shot.

Shusuke was expecting that move already and I cursed as he shot it to the left of the court and I missed.

"Game, Shusuke. Score stands 3-4." I wasn't going to lose.

"What do you say you break out that fancy step of yours?" Shusuke said mockingly.

"As soon as you break out all your triple counters." I said. I walked back to my side of the court and waited for him to serve noticing that Alex was watching Momo and Kaoru's game. I glanced over at the game too and things seemed pretty intense.

Alex shouted something to Momo and she went to court A, no doubt going to watch Tezuka's game.

Me and Shusuke rallied back and forth for some time, but he ended up winning.

"Good game." He said to me.

"Yeah, you too." I said, wiping the sweat from my forehead. We walked back to court A and Tezuka was doing drills with 4 other guys on the team. The 4 other guys were right up on the net and Tezuka was trying to find openings between them.

A whistle blew in the distance and everyone came to gather at court A.

"Good job everyone." Hirotaka said, after everyone fell in line. "Now, the order for the regionals has been decided but if I think you're not doing good enough I can drop you. For the remainder, 20 laps, 30 swings and 20 reps." The whistle blew and I started off with my running first. It didn't take me long and I was done with practice earlier then I thought I was going to be.

"Hey," I said to a 10th grader doing his swings. "Did you see a girl around here?" I pointed to the stands that I last saw Alex at.

"About half an hour ago." He shrugged and went back to swinging.

"Huh." I walked slowly to the locker room and took a quick shower. I grabbed my back pack and started heading out.

"Hey," I heard a yell. I turned to see Shusuke running to catch up to me. "You finished faster than I did." He said, laughing.

"Hey man. What can I do for you?" We started walking and Shusuke chuckled under his breath.

"I'm going to ask Alex out tomorrow." He said.

"You don't waste any time." I told him laughing although deep down I was kind of annoyed.

"Yeah, but if it bothers you, I won't."

"Why would it bother me?" I asked shaking my head.

"I was just letting everyone know what was going on." Shusuke said. "You know, giving everyone fair warning and all so that no one is surprised."

"Go for it man." I told him, punching him in the arm. I was mentally kicking myself though. Why did it bug me so much that he was going to ask her out? He was a good guy and any girl would be lucky to have caught his attention, even though I would never admit that out loud.

"Great." Shusuke smiled. "Everyone's good with it. You were the last one to tell." Why was I the last one?

"Well good luck tomorrow." I said, shrugging it off.

"Thanks man." And with that he took off in a different direction. I don't know why I was so angry with myself right now, but I felt supremely dumb.

"I'm home." I shouted when I got in the door. I threw my stuff on the floor and headed into the kitchen getting some grapes out of the fridge and washing them off.

"How was your day?" My older sister asked me, joining me in eating grapes.

"Fine." I said, biting a grape in half.

"What's wrong?" She asked.

"Nothing." I tossed the other half of that grape high up in the air and caught it in my mouth.

"Yeah, and there's nothing wrong with the pants the Kira walked out of the house wearing this morning." She said. I had to laugh at that too.

"Maybe I do need your perspective on this." I said, thinking about it. She leaned forward and I shook my head.

"There's this new girl at school…"

"Well there's the problem." She cut in.

"Will you listen." I said, laughing in spite of myself.

"Your right." She said, shaking her head. "Go on."

"Well her name is Alex and she's from America. She's Ryoma's cousin and so we all hang out with her. She's only been here for about a week and Shusuke is already going to ask her out tomorrow."

"And why is that a problem?" My sister asked me.

"Because he doesn't even know her that well." I said, saying the first thing that came to my mind. "I mean, how do we know that she's good for him? She could have a boyfriend back in the states that we don't know about." My sister just looked at me like I was crazy.

"I think I know what the problem really is." She said, smiling. I waited for an answer and when she didn't answer, I had to ask.

"Well," I almost shouted. "What is the problem?"  
"You really don't think you know?" She asked seriously. "No idea at all?"

"Well I just don't want her to hurt Shusuke, you know, he's a really good guy."

"Or.." My sister said, eating some more grapes. "You really like her." I thought about that possibility for a second and realized that she may be right.

"How do you know if you like someone?" I asked her, completely at a loss.

"It's about time you grew up." She said leaning over and hugging me.

"What's happened now?" My older brother came into the kitchen and also joined us in eating grapes.

"It's nothing." I said, quickly.

"Eiji likes a girl." My sister just ratted me out quickly.

"I thought you were gay." My brother said, hitting me on the back.

"Just because you think I'm gay, doesn't mean I am." I said, a little annoyed.

"Do we need to have the birds and the bees talk?" My mom asked, coming into the kitchen with my dad. I felt my face get hot and I wished that I had never opened up my mouth.

"No mom." I said.

"Honey." My dad cut in. "That's a talk for men." I felt my face get hotter and I looked at my dad.

"It's not that big of a deal." I said.

"Of course it is." My brother said. "There's nothing wrong with coming out of the closet."

"Oh hush now." My mother said, hitting my brother on the back of the head.

"Help me set the table." My sister said to my brother.

"Why me?" I mouthed thank you and they grabbed the stack of plates. She winked at me and I began helping my mom prepare for dinner.

I liked Alex. This was going to cause some problems at school tomorrow.

* * *

**A/N: I'm sorry that the match wasn't any good but I just know the basics of tennis. I'll update soon so R & R =)**


	6. Birthday's and Requests

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Prince of Tennis or any characters

* * *

**Alex's POV**

I had watched all the boys play and was very impressed with their skill. It was amazing how well they played.

"So how was the team practice?" Ryoma asked, when I got home. I sat down on the couch and smiled.

"It was good. They all really do play amazing."

"Well, we did go to the nationals together." He said, smirking.  
"Makes me wonder how well we would've done against them." I said off-handedly. Ryoma instantly grew quiet and I kicked myself for that comment.

"I wish I knew." He whispered. I shrugged it off and we sat there in silence.

"So how are you doing on your tennis team?" I asked, changing the subject quickly.

"Good." He said.

"No doubt you're the best one on the team." I laughed. He shook his head no and I instantly knew that he was lying. I opened my mouth to say something when the phone rang and Ryoma leaned over to get it.

"Hello. Hey Leon, I haven't heard from you in a long time." Ryoma said, smiling. "Yeah. She's right here." He tossed me the phone.

"Hi Leon." I said.

"How's it going?" He asked me.

"It's going."

"How is Tokyo treating you?"

"How did you know that I was here?" I asked, throwing a pillow at Ryoma and laughing.

"Let's just say a little bird told me."

"I don't think that bird is so little anymore." I said, making a face at Ryoma.

"Well, no matter." He said, switching over to French. "How have you been?" I knew what he was talking about, but I avoided that subject at all costs.

"Just having a hard time catching up in school."

"Stop lying. You were always at the top of your class in the states."

"Well the states and Japan have very different standards." I told him, thinking about it.

"Why do you even bother with school? You play the piano well enough that you can make a career out of it."

"I don't play the piano anymore, and tennis for that matter." There was silence on the other end for a minute and I could already tell that he wanted to say something.

"I don't think…"

"There's no need," I said, cutting him off. "My mind is already made up."

"But…"

"No use." I told him. "I can hang up the phone if you really want to go that far."

"Don't. I just wanted to make sure that this is something that you want to do and not because.."

"You and about 5 other people." I told him. "You're not the only one that doesn't want me to quit, but it's the facts of life. I'm sorry."

"As long as it's what you want to do."

"If it wasn't, I wouldn't have quit."

"Yeah. I guess you're right. You would know better than anybody." There was more silence and I couldn't stand it. Thankfully Nanjiro came in.

"I have to go." I told him. "Nanjiro is here and we're going out for Rinko's birthday. I'll talk to you later." And I hung up the phone even before he said good-bye to me.

"Who was that?" Nanjiro asked, coming into the living room and sitting on the couch.

"Leon. Was just calling to check up on us." I looked at Ryoma and he hid a laugh.

"So where are we going to eat?" Ryoma asked his dad, slipping onto the floor and starting to stretch.

"Oh I was thinking that nice Italian place down on 5th." Nanjiro said, nonchalantly. I gaped at him and Ryoma looked up from his stretch.

"Seriously?" I asked. "You need like a year reservation for that place." I was so impressed.

"Yes you do." Nanjiro said, "So let's take some showers and dress appropriately. I'll see you 2 down here in 2 hours." I laughed and ran to get the bathroom first.

* * *

At 6 o'clock I finished the touches of make-up to my face and headed to the front room. Rinko and Nanjiro were already there in their best dress up clothes and I smiled when I seen Ryoma.

"Ahh. Who knew the Prince could clean up so well?" I teased.

"Alex, you look beautiful." Rinko said while Ryoma stuck his tongue out at me.

"Happy Birthday Rinko." I said, coming forward and hugging her.

"That blue dress always looked perfect on your mother too." She whispered in my ear so that only I could hear her. I closed my eyes tight for a second and hugged her tighter.

"Thank you." I whispered back.

"Let's get going." Nanjiro said, clapping his hands together. "This is one reservation we don't want to miss."

When we got to the Italian restaurant, we were seated immediately and were served bread with soft butter.

"Well take some champagne as well." Nanjiro said to the waiter. "Mer Soleil Chardonnay."

"Coming right up." The waiter said. I opened a menu and started looking over everything. I wouldn't have been able to tell which was right side up if there hadn't been any pictures to tell me so.

"I'll order for us all." Nanjiro said. We all looked at him as the waiter came back with the wine and poured 2 glasses.

Nanjiro quickly shot off some orders in Italian and the waiter took them down without missing a beat. I laughed as Ryoma looked at his dad like he didn't know who he was.

"I know what you all like, so it wasn't that hard to chose." Nanjiro said.

"Since when did you speak Italian?" Ryoma asked, setting his menu down.

"C'mon son. Have some faith in your old man." Me and Rinko laughed again as Ryoma just shook his head.

The food soon came and mine turned out to be pasta and cream with breadsticks on the side, Ryoma's was rolled biscotti with their specialty marinara sauce. Rinko's was a chicken breast with Alfredo sauce and noodles.

It was the most delicious food I had ever ate before in my life.

"Now that was good." I said, finishing and wiping my mouth with a napkin.

"That was amazing." Ryoma said, doing the same.

"Thank you honey." Rinko said, leaning over and pecking him on the lips. I smiled and found myself thinking about times long forgotten and gone.

"Would you like anything for dessert?" The waiter asked.

"I think we're good on that front." Nanjiro said. "We'll take the check now." The waiter took the left over champagne and went to get the check.

"This was so perfect." Rinko said, smiling at each of us in turn.

"Well this is for you." I said, taking out the box that had her present in it. She smiled and unwrapped it, holding the small necklace up in the light. It was very simple, a white gold heart and her birth stone in the middle.

"It's beautiful. Thank you Alex."

"Happy Birthday mom." Ryoma said handing her his gift. His was a little more special, it was an oval and in the middle it said mom in it.

"Thank you baby."Rinko said, leaning over and kissing Ryoma on the cheek and I had to laugh.

"I know it's your birthday and all, but come on mom." Ryoma didn't try too hard to pull away but his face turned beat red.

"Let's go for some ice cream." Nanjiro said, the minute we got outside the restaurant.

"But I thought you said we were good on desserts?" I asked confused.

"Well all their dessert are always so rich and heavy." Nanjiro said. "You can't go wrong with a light ice cream."

"Can't argue with that." I smiled at Ryoma and when we got our ice cream we all took a stroll in the park. Me and Ryoma went one way and Rinko and Nanjiro the other, them wanting some alone time.

We passed by a large pond and walked halfway across a bridge and stood in the middle of it.

"I love water when you can see the reflection of the stars in it." I told Ryoma, staring at the still water reflecting the stars and lights from faraway skyscrapers.

"Yeah. It's nice." I rolled my eyes, he was such a boy. I leaned on the ledge and stared up at the endless dark sky up above.

"What are you thinking about?" Ryoma whispered, tossing a rock down into the pond creating a ripple effect.

"Thinking how big can the universe actually be?" I searched for the little dipper after I found the big one.

"That's it?" He asked.

"Yeah." I said, turning to him. "What are you thinking about?"

"What we would be doing back in the states if that accident never happened?" It felt like my blood froze and I couldn't swallow. I started to remember all the huge birthday parties we would throw, all the games and all the people. I smiled and remembered Ryoma's 13th birthday.

"No doubt throwing a huge bash." I said.

"Yeah. Personally I think it was more fun throwing an adult party." I laughed at the memory when my dad and Nanjiro had fallen in the pool trying to stop my aunt from going in.

"Those were always fun." I laughed. I went back to staring at the stars and had an idea. "Can I ask you something?"

"Anything." Ryoma said, seriously.

"I would like to play a tennis game with Momoshiro." I said, tossing a rock into the settled water.

"So…." He said.

"I was wondering if you could get him to the tennis courts and I can meet you there." He seemed to think about for a long time.

"I'm pretty sure if you ask him for a match, he'll be happy to oblige." Ryoma laughed.

"I don't want him to know that it's me." I told him.

"Why not?"

"Because that would mean that they would know I played and I just want to play him in one match. That's all."

"So you're not going to start playing again." Ryoma sounded so disappointed.

"I just want 1 game. His style of play reminds so much of Brian." I whispered. I could tell that Ryoma was staring at me in the dark.

"Alright." He sighed. "But just this once. If you want any other matches you're going to have to do the dirty work yourself." I busted out laughing.  
"Dirty work?"

"You are lying to them." He said, matter-of-factly.

"I'm not. They asked me if I play. Right now I don't play." It was the only way I could justify myself and even I knew it was a crap job.

"So when do you want me to set this up?"

"How about tomorrow?"

"Tomorrow it is." And with that me and Ryoma went to find Rinko and Nanjiro.


	7. The Mystery Player

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Prince of Tennis or any characters

**Momo's POV**

When we were done with morning practice, we headed to the wall and just hung out.

"So did anyone catch that tennis special on John Austin?" I asked.

"Yeah." Eiji said. "Now that guy can play." Sadaharu joined in on our conversation and we started talking about our favorite players and what-not.

"Has anyone seen Shusuke?" Eiji asked looking around. "I wanted to ask him something."

"Last I seen him, he was at practice." I said, thinking about.

"Hey, there's Alex." Oishi said, waving as Alex came into view. She smiled and waved back making her way towards us.

"I think I know where Shusuke is." I said as he stopped her and they started talking.

"What do you think she's going to say?" I asked Kaoru, elbowing him for his attention. He looked up and laughed.

"I don't think we'll know until she answers." He said. I watched as Shusuke started talking and Alex laughed and nodded.

"She totally said yes." I laughed, punching Kaoru in the shoulder.

"You can't even hear her." Kaoru said, punching me back harder then I had hit him.

"Dude. You can just tell by the look on her face." They both started walking this and before I knew what happened, Eiji jumped off the wall and stormed away.

"Eiji." Shuichiro called after him, following. "Wait for me."

"What's the matter with him?" I asked. Kaoru just shrugged and we waited for the Alex and Shusuke to come over.

"So," I said, laughing. "What have you 2 been talking about?"

"Nothing." Alex said, a deep blush coming to her cheeks.

"Alex just shot me down." Shusuke said, shrugging it off like it was nothing. I stopped laughing and looked at Alex. "It's alright though. No worries."

Alex wouldn't look at anyone and I had to wonder what her reasoning was for not accepting his date? The first bell rang and we all packed up and started heading towards the school.

"Momoshiro." Alex called and I rolled my eyes.

"How many times do I have to ask you to just call me Momo?" I laughed.

"Sorry." She laughed. "Umm, I have a message from Ryoma." She handed me a piece of paper that had some scrawls on it. Ryoma wanted to meet up and play some tennis today after school.

"Did you read this?" I asked Alex as we reached the school.

"Nah. That's between you and Ryoma." She told me.

"Well we're going to play tennis after school today, do you want to join us?"

"Umm. Today?" She thought about it. "I can't, I have some stuff I have to do after school today. Maybe some other time." She smiled and left for her first class.

I sighed and headed towards my own class excited for the end of the day. I was finally going to get to play Ryoma after a year.

I headed down to the old tennis courts where Alex had told me to go meet Ryoma. I had asked her if she wanted to come, but she said that she had other things to do.

Walking up the stairs, I shrugged and made my way onto the court.

"Hey man." I waved to Ryoma who was across the court. He was all sweaty which meant that he had already played a game or 2. "How's it going?" Ryoma shrugged.

"It's going good. Haven't played street tennis in who knows how long." He glanced around the court, shook his head and took a swig of his water.

"Anyone here worth playing?" I asked, taking out my racket and stretching.

"A couple of kids, yeah." I watched the previous match go on and waited for a chance to play. It used to be that this was a doubles court, but just recently it had been changed for either. The match ended and 2 boys came forward wanting to play doubles. The game was over quite fast. The first pair of boys was really good.

"I got next game." I shouted so everyone could hear me.

"Guess that makes me up next then." Said a voice on the other side of the court. I looked up to see a boy in a baggy sweater with a cap and a hood on and some old baggy blue jeans. I couldn't see his face because of the hood and the cap, but he definitely had to be a high school student.

"Nice getup." I said. "Aren't you going to be hot?"

"I probably won't even break a sweat playing against you." He said, matter-of-factly.

"I'm going to make you regret those words." I growled. He was going to be sorry he ever provoked me. "Can you believe this guy Ryoma?" I was so pumped and ready to go.

"Just don't underestimate him." Ryoma said, watching the other player. He was on the opposite side of the court bouncing a ball off the side of his racket, leaning on the wall. I wish I could've gotten a better look at him.

The doubles match ended and I walked on the court ready to beat this twerp.

"So if I win, are you going to show your face to me so I know your defeated look?" I asked.

"Sure." He said, "If you beat me. Call it." He spun his racket.

"Down." I said. It landed up.

"Go ahead and serve." He said, walking away. "This should be a nice warm-up." He thought I wasn't even going to be a match for him. Well I'll show him. I served and he hit it back at me with no problem. Now was my chance, I smiled and hit my jack knife.

I watched as he rushed forward and placed his racket right on his chest and took the impact of the shot before it even bounced causing it to be a drop shot back on my side of the court. I was too stunned to even get to it.

Nobody had ever returned my jack knife like that before. I had seen players with the power to return my shot, but not like that.

"I've played some players who pack a better punch then that." The kid said to me, smirking. All I could see was a set of white straight teeth.

"I'm just getting warmed up." I told him. He wasn't going to get the better of me twice. Or so I thought, every shot I had in my arsenal, he found a way to return it with no problem. He had no holes in his game. I couldn't believe that he was this good.

"I believe that's game." He said when I missed a shot. We came to the net to shake hands. "Nice game."

I shook his hand and stared at him, still not being able to see his face.

"You're not even sweating." I whispered almost to myself.  
"Told you." He let go of my hand and I stared at my own. I had really tried to win, what was wrong with me?

"You alright?" Ryoma asked me as I came to get my bag.

"Yeah." I told him, almost not hearing him.

"If it helps any, I lost to him too. Didn't even break a sweat that time either."I looked at Ryoma seriously, but he was watching the retreating back of the player I just played.

"Are you serious?" I asked, not believing him. He was just saying that to help my moral. But the look that he gave me told me that he was deadly serious. Who was that kid?

"Well it's good for him that I'm not one to mope around about a loss." I said, coming to a decision. "I'll work hard and next time I see him, I'll win. He won't even know who he played." I was so pumped up, that I called the next game. For some reason I had the feeling that this wasn't the last time I was going to see him.

**Ryoma's POV**

I left Momo at the courts after his 4th consecutive game. I had almost thought that he was going to mope after that match, but I should've known better than that.

"I'm home." From the sounds of it, no one was home but I knew that Alex would be here.

"Hey," Alex said when I knocked on her door. I walked into the bedroom and sat on her bed. She was in her closet putting her racket back up in the boxes that were there.

"Were you even playing seriously?" I asked, knowing the answer already.

"He wasn't ready for me to play seriously." I told him. "And beside, he wasn't either till the end game. "Which it was too late for him to make a comeback anyway." She told me.

"Yeah I suppose your right. But you know he's going to get better." I laughed.  
"Good. That's what I wanted to come out of today's lesson." She came out of the closet and I could tell right away that she had been crying.

"Does this mean you're picking up tennis again?" I asked, hoping for a better answer.

"No." She said, sitting on the floor and not looking at me. "This was a one-time thing."

"It would be alright if you did." I tried.

"I can't." She said, her voice breaking. "It wouldn't be fair."

"Brian and Alice would want you to play." I said kindly.

"It's just not fair." She said. I didn't know what to say to her to make her feel better. It tormented me that I couldn't think of one thing to say that would get her to play tennis again, or the piano for that matter.

"I have some homework to do." She said, shaking off the moment of sadness. She pulled out some books from under her bed and opened one she had a book mark on it.

"You know." I said, without thinking. "It's an insult to their memories, you not playing." I don't know what made me say it, but I instantly regretted it. I seen her freeze up and I was overcome with guilt, but it was too late, I had already hurt her by saying it.

I got up and left the room without saying anything. I couldn't bring myself to say sorry because it was it true.

Her not playing tennis wasn't only hurting her.

"She is like a prodigy sent straight from God himself." I told my dad when as soon as he walked in the door.

"Are we talking about your mother?" He asked and I laughed.

"No. Alex. There are no holes in her tennis. Every time she plays, she plays the perfect game. I don't think I have ever seen her lose a game. Not one on purpose anyway." I said, thinking about one match in particular.

"Which is not good for a players moral. It does you good to lose every once in a while."

"But she's so good. I don't understand why she never played back in the states either?"

"She did play for a while." My dad pointed out.

"Yeah, but only those 6 months."

"You know son," My dad said carefully. "Maybe she loved doing something even more than just being good at tennis."

"What do you mean?" I asked, confused.

"It's far better for you to do something that you love then just doing something that your good at." I thought about it, and I smiled at the thought of all those days she just sat at the piano playing for hours on end.

"I don't get why she doesn't play the piano either." I shook my head.

"I don't pretend to know everything," My dad said after some silence. "But playing the piano is something that she loves and eventually I believe that she'll come around. Just give her some time." I shook my head and my dad headed into the kitchen.

"Come and help me set the table." My mom called from the kitchen and I ran in there, grateful for anything that would take my mind off these unhappy thoughts.


	8. Uncertainties and Group Dates

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Prince of Tennis or any characters

**A/N: So I noticed a mistake I made and went back and fixed it. Originally the main character's name was going to be Chasity, but at the last second I changed it to Alex so I went back and changed the POV for chapter 2, 4 and 6. I don't think I messed anything else up but let me know if you see a mistake (leaving out small spelling errors and a few missing words.) **

**And without further ado.. The latest Chapter. Thank you and R & R  
**

* * *

**Oishi's POV**

Over the next 2 months, things slowly began to change. It wasn't a change that was obvious like if you were on the outside looking in, you could definitely tell.

For me, I watched slowly as Eiji came to like Alex more and more but was too dumb enough to say so. Shusuke on the other hand had just came out and told everyone that he liked her. No doubt the reason Eiji didn't come out and say it was that Alex often paid Shusuke no mind, even though he flirted with her openly and was constantly inviting her out with him.

When things came to Alex, it came without saying that everyone softened up a bit. Even Tezuka, which wasn't a big deal to her but was to us, was soft where she was concerned.

I still didn't trust her fully. There was something that she wasn't telling us and I wanted to find out what it was.

"I don't know why you're so suspicious of her." Eiji said absentmindedly while we were in the library studying for a test one day.

"I'm not suspicious. I'm just saying that there is something that she's not telling us. There's a difference."

"But why does it even matter. People are allowed to have secrets."

"Yeah. But we are her friend's so why won't she share with us?"

"Do you know everything about Kunimitsu?" Eiji asked and then thought about it. "Bad example." We were quiet and I couldn't think what was so unsettling about her.

"I got it." Eiji yelled and then went back to a whisper. "It bugs you because all the rest of us have no secrets to keep from each other."

"And why would that bother me?" I asked confused.

"Because, we all know each other so well, and here she comes all mysterious and such and you just want to know more about her."

"But I don't see how that would bug me so much?" I said and Eiji just rolled his eyes. I opened my mouth to say something, but Momo joined us at our table.

"Hey guys." He said, dumping some books on the table and starting to open one up.

"Hey." We both said, not continuing our conversation.

"So what's everyone doing this weekend?" Momo asked.

"Family stuff this weekend." Eiji said.

"I've got a date with Aya tomorrow." I told them. Instantly they both looked at me and grins grew on their faces. "Shut up." I said, feeling my cheeks growing hot.

"When are we going to get to meet this mystery girl?" Eiji asked. I had been dating Aya for 3 months now and it was going good.

"Just let it go." I said.

"Ah c'mon man." Momo pushed. "If you're serious about this girl then we should be able to meet her."

"I'm.. It's not like.." I couldn't find the right words to explain myself and when I tried to explain I ended up just making no sense at all. Both Momo and Eiji busted up laughing and I felt the heat on my face. I ignored them and went back to my homework.

"C'mon man." Eiji said, hitting my arm. "You know we're just messing with you."

"I know." I said, not looking up.

"We don't really have to meet her." Momo said.

"Do you guys want to come with us tomorrow?" I asked, still not looking up.

"You mean with you and Aya?" Momo asked.

"Of course you'll have to have dates." I grinned slyly at them both. I laughed when both of them looked at me unbelievably.  
"Well Saturday is a date day. So if you want to meet her, you've gotta have a date."

"No problem for me." Momo said, smiling at Eiji. "Is that a problem for you? Is Alex free?"

"Shut up." Eiji said. "I wasn't going to ask her anyway. She's made it clear that that she doesn't want to go out by not accepting dates with Shusuke."

"How do you know that she just doesn't like him, but likes someone else?" Momo asked thoughtfully. He made some sense.

"Why don't you at least ask her what she's doing tomorrow?" I asked Eiji.

"Will you both lay off?" Eiji said.

"C'mon." I pushed. "How can you know that she doesn't like you if you never ask her?"

"I'll ask her, now will you 2 just lay off." Eiji said. I laughed and we all went back to doing our homework.

"C'mon. Let's go see what everyone else is doing this weekend." Momo said, closing his books when the last bell rang. We all gathered our stuff up and made our way to the wall.

"So what's everyone going to do this weekend?" I asked as we got within hearing distance.

"I'm going with my parents to Okinawa." Sadaharu said. "Visiting some relatives."

"My sister is coming into town so my mom wants to do a family dinner." Shusuke said.

"I don't really have anything planned for tomorrow." Kaoru said.

"I've got my coaching job all day tomorrow at the men's club." Tezuka said.

"Hey Kaoru, you want to bring Hattori on a group date tomorrow?" I asked.

"Yeah. We haven't been out together for a while. Who else is going?"

"So far me, you, Eiji, and Momo." I said. Kaoru smiled.

"What about Alex?" He asked, looking at Eiji for the answer.

"What about Alex?" Alex said, coming up to the wall unnoticed.

"Well, we were just discussing our weekend plans." I told her. "And we were just.."

"Wondering if you were busy tomorrow?" Eiji cut in.

"Actually, I am. I'm helping a friend out." She smiled.

"Who?" 4 of us all asked together. Alex looked between me, Eiji, Shusuke and Sadaharu.

"His name is Kiryu and he's in my math class. He's kind of in a jam and needs my help."

"That's too bad." I said. "We're doing a group date and Eiji and Momo need dates to tag along." I laughed.

"Wait, a group date with you and Aya?" She asked, surprised. "I want to meet this girl."

"I invited you. So you can't blame me if you can't make it." She made a face at me and I laughed.

"I have to get going. I'll probably see you guys on Monday. Tell Aya I said hi and don't have too much fun." Alex said, starting towards the gate.

There was a chorus of good-bye's and I turned on the group.

"I'll see you guys tomorrow." I said, looking at Eiji, Momo and Kaoru. "We're meeting at the plaza at 1 so don't be late, and don't forget your date." I laughed and waved goodbye to the rest of the group. Tomorrow was going to be fun. They were right, it was about time they met Aya.

* * *

"Mom." I yelled down the stairs at 12. "Can I get a ride to the plaza?" I had jumped out of the shower and was pulling on my socks.

"Yeah." She called back. "We need to leave in 15 minutes. I have an appointment at 1." I hurried around my room making sure that I didn't forget anything.

"Hey dad." I said, coming into the kitchen. He looked at me and shook his head.

"How much do you need?" He asked.

"30 bucks." I said guiltily. He dug in his wallet and I had to smile.

"I don't have any change, so here's 40."

"Thank you." I said reaching out to take the money from him.

"Yeah yeah. You can wash the car tomorrow." He said.

"It's so cold out. Can't I just take it through a car wash?" I complained. He gave me that look and started to only hand me 20 instead of 40. "Alright. I'll wash the car tomorrow." He smiled that smile that said he won and I couldn't do anything about.

"Watch me catch pneumonia." I said under my breath.

"And if that happens it's a good thing your uncle is a doctor." And with that me and my mom went to leave. I would let my dad have this battle, but at dinner it was on.

"So who's all going on this date today?" My mom asked, heading in the direction of the plaza.

"So far it's me, Eiji, Momo and Kaoru and their dates. So probably 8 people."

"That sounds like fun." My mom said. I smiled and looked out the window. "Call me if you need a ride home." She said, when we got to the Plaza and I was getting out.

"Thanks mom, but I'll probably get a ride with Eiji." She shrugged and waved goodbye. I walked around the plaza and took a seat on a low rising wall when I didn't see anyone. I probably only sat there for about 10 mins. before I spotted Eiji and a girl I recognized from our history class. I stood up and waved them over.

"Shuichiro. You know Haruna from our History class." I shook her hand and smiled at her. "How are you?"

"I'm good." She smiled. "It's nice to see you outside of school."

"Likewise." I said.

"Who are we waiting on?" Kaoru asked turning up practically out of nowhere and giving me a heart attack.

"Just Momo and his date." I laughed. "Hey Hattori."

"How's it going?" She asked.

"Good. It's nice to see you on a weekend." I told her.

"Yeah. No kidding. It's nice to see you guys out of your uniform." Eiji shrugged and I looked around for Aya.

"So what have we got planned for today's outing?" Eiji asked, leaning against the small wall.

"Well I was thinking we could either go see a movie and get something to eat, or we could go ice skating at that new indoor rink and just chill there?" I said.

"I vote ice skating." Hattori said.

"Ice skating sounds fun." Aya showed up at my elbow and I almost had another heart attack.

"Aya." I said, holding onto my chest. She just giggled and I had to smile.

"Sorry. But I thought you would've seen me by the time I made it over here."

"Guys. This is Aya. Aya this is Eiji and his date Haruna. Kaoru and his girlfriend Hattori. Guys, this is Aya." They all shook hands and Aya smiled warmly at everyone. "We're just waiting on Momo and his date."

"Eiji. It's nice to finally meet you." Aya said. "And you too Kaoru. I've heard so much about you guys." Both my team mates looked at me and I felt myself blush.

"Our curiosity seems to be rivaled." Eiji said, his eyes twinkling. Thankfully just then Momo showed up with his date.

"Sorry I'm late guys. We missed the first train. Um, this is my date Kyoko. Kyoko meet Kaoru and Hattori, Shuichiro and Aya and Eiji and…"

"Haruna." Eiji said. We all stood around getting acquainted with each other for a couple minutes and then took a vote on ice skating or movies and dinner.

"So ice skating it is." I said.

"Sounds like it." Eiji said and now that everyone was here, we started walking towards the arena. We all talked and laughed and I was so glad that I invited Kaoru, Momo and Eiji.

We got to the ice rink and I was surprised that there were so many people there. I mean it was a Saturday and all, but the Saturday that we had come here before wasn't this busy.

"Guess more people had heard about this place in the last few weeks." I whispered to Aya. "I'll go get us some skates." Eiji asked what size Haruna wore and Momo asked what size Kyoko wore and the 4 of us went to pay for skates.

"So how did you come to ask Haruna to come out today?" I asked, curious as to why he chose her.

"I seen her on my way out of school yesterday." He said shrugging it off. I left it alone seeing that there was no special reason behind it.

"2. 1 size 5 girls and 1 size 9 ½ for boys." I said.

"12 bucks." The cashier said, handing me both pairs of skates. I handed him a 20 and he gave me back the change.

"2. 1 size 5 ½ for girls and 1 size 10 ½ for boys." Momo ordered, handing the cashier 20 bucks and then taking his change.

"2. 1 size 5 ½ for girls and 1 size 10 for boys." Eiji said and handed them 12 bucks.

"2. 1 size 5 for girls and 1 size 10 ½ for boys." Kaoru said, also handing them 12 dollars. We grabbed the skates and headed over to the 4 waiting girls who were all giggling. That was a bad sign when girls giggled while you were away.

"Can't leave you 4 alone for 5 minutes without you all finding something to giggle about." I winked at Aya and she stuck out her tongue.

"You're just jealous that you can't giggle." Haruna said, starting to put her skates on.

"What's the point in giggling when you can just laugh?" Kaoru said, also starting with his skates.

"It's what girls do to drive you mad," Hattori said. "Cause if we just laugh that automatically means that something is funny, but if we giggle it means than it means that we have our own little inside secret." I had no clue what she just said and I looked to Eiji or Kaoru for help.

"Don't look at me." Eiji said, "All I heard was that they giggle instead of laugh."

"I heard a bunch of foreign language." Kaoru said, finishing up his laces. I shook my head and started on my own skates.

"Are we ready?" Eiji asked, standing up and testing his balance.

"Yup." All the girls said. I stood up and tested my skates too and found them to my liking.

"Let's go." I smiled, taking Aya by the hand and leading her out onto the ice. We all circled the rink once together and then we broke off, skating in pairs.

"I like your friend's." Aya said, smiling.

"I knew you would. And this is only half of them." I told her.

"Aren't you mister popular." She said, laughing. I made to say something to her, but across the way, I saw a familiar brunette walking towards the concessions stand. What the heck was Alex doing here? I watched as she bought 4 hot chocolates and made her way carefully in the opposite direction.

I started veering to the left to see where she was going when I heard Aya call my name. I looked up to late to see another skater in my path and I tried to stop unsuccessfully.

With a hard crunch, I smacked into a girl wearing a red and white coat and we both went falling to the ice.

"OWW." She cried.

"I-I'm so-sorry." I stuttered. "I wasn't watching where I was skating." Aya and another boy came skating over as I helped the girl up.

"Are you alright?" The boy asked the girl.

"Yeah. I'm fine. Are o.k?" The girl asked me.

"Yeah. Just a bump." She laughed and they both skated off. I looked around for Alex and I spotted her. I watched for a second as she sipped her hot chocolate and laughed. I watched and stared as Kiryu came up and wrapped his arms around her and she laughed as he kissed her on the cheek.

So she was dating Kiryu. I had to make sure that Eiji didn't see this at all costs.


	9. Favors Gone Wrong

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Prince of Tennis or any characters

* * *

**Alex's POV**

I sipped on the hot chocolate that Kiryu bought and laughed with the rest of the group. I couldn't believe that I let Kiryu talk me into doing this.

"Thank you so much." Kiryu said, wrapping his arms around me and whispering while he pretended to give me a kiss. He pulled away and I smiled at him, holding onto his hand.

"So how did you 2 actually meet?" A girl in the group asked. I looked at Kiryu and he nodded at me to tell the story. Leave it to him to put me on the spot.

"Well," I said. "I'm from the States and when I got here I really didn't know anyone. I got bullied and he stood up for me." I kept it short and simple.

"That's so sweet." One of the boys said. I didn't like that boy from the beginning, he was rude and he thought he was better than everyone else in the group.

"I don't see you with a girlfriend."I said, leaning on Kiryu. I knew that he didn't like me and I wasn't doing anything to help the matters along. Everyone in the group busted up laughing and I stared at him, daring him to say something.

"C'mon." Kiryu said, pulling me onto the ice. A slow couples song started and Kiryu held onto my hand.

"Am I doing o.k?" I asked, kind of self conscious that I wasn't really helping him.

"You're doing a better job then I could've asked for." He said, looking at me and smiling.

"I don't see why you just don't tell them that you don't have a real girlfriend." I said, looking at the ice.

"I don't think you would understand." He sighed.

"Try me." I dared him.

"It's just that I've known them for years and when we were getting ready to do this reunion, all the guys had money on me that I didn't have a girlfriend. When An asked me if I had a girlfriend, I told her that I did she told me about that. When we were younger, I was kind of the dork of the group and they always poked fun at me." I watched him while he talked about this and I kind of felt sorry for him.

"And these guys are your friends?" I asked.

"Don't get me wrong." He said quickly. "They're really cool once you get to know them, it was just kid things back then."

"And now we're all grown up." I said sarcastically.

"Yeah." Kiryu said. I held onto his hand and we skated closer together.

"You know, it would make life easier if you just told your friends the truth." I looked at him out of the corner of my eyes and he didn't say anything.

"I told you you wouldn't understand." He said, coming to a stop.

"I understand, but I just don't see why you're lying?" I also stopped and faced him, causing people to skate around us.

"Just forget it." Kiryu said, he made to skate away from me but I grabbed his arm and made him look at me.

"I'm helping you," I told him seriously. "Just don't turn this into a regular thing. I don't want.." A group of boys caught my attention and I groaned internally.

"You don't want what?" Kiryu asked.

"Too late." I muttered as me and Oishi made eye contact. And things just kept getting better. Eiji came skating up to Momo and Oishi and asked Oishi something but when he continued to stare at me, Eiji caught on and saw me standing there holding Kiryu's hand.

It was like something passed silently between us.

_Who's he?_ He seemed to ask.

_Who's she? _ I asked as a small girl came skating up and hung onto Eiji's arm.

"C'mon." Kiryu said, pulling me towards his group of friends. I prayed silently that the guys would just leave me alone. I would explain to them on Monday but I should've known better than that.

"Alex." Instinctively I turned when I heard my name being called and Momo was skating towards me with a girl that I had never seen before. I cursed silently for my bad luck and waved to him.

"Momo. I didn't know you would be here today." Kiryu held onto me, but I knew that he wasn't too happy about seeing them either. He knew that the tennis guys were my main group of friends. It was because of him that I didn't tell them what I was really doing today, he had asked me not to tell them and when I asked him why not he just answered that they might ruin his plans. Now I saw what he meant.

"Yeah." Momo said coming to a stop right next to us. "We all decided to come here for our group date. Aya is here if you want to meet her." Momo seemed like he didn't care one bit about me being here with Kiryu and that I didn't tell him.

"Umm. We'll be over in a minute." Kiryu said. "Just going to let my friends know what's up." Momo and his date skated away and Kiryu turned on me.

"Why didn't you tell me they were going to be here today?" He hissed.

"I didn't know." I said, glancing as Momo rejoined the group. "They said they were all going out but what were the chances that they would be at the same place?" Kiryu ran a hand through his hair and I could feel that he was uncomfortable.

"What do we do now?" He asked.

"We'll tell your friends that we'll be right back and we'll go over there, say hi and just leave it at that. It's not like we really need to do a whole bunch. It'll be fine." I grabbed his face and made him look at me.

"Alright." He said, holding my hand. We skated back to where his friends were sitting.

"We just seen some of our friends from school, so we'll be right back." Kiryu told them.

"No rush." One of the girls said as we skated away.

"Are you sure this is alright?" Kiryu asked.

"I'm doing you a favor, now you need to do me one." I said under my breath.

"Hey guys." I laughed when we reached the 6 of them. "Imagine running into you here."

"Imagine." Eiji said, not smiling but just staring at Kiryu.

"Umm. Me and Kiryu are just hanging out with his friends from Junior High." I told them.

"I didn't know you were seeing Kiryu." Oishi said, also staring at Kiryu. I swallowed and opened my mouth to say something but Kiryu beat me to the punch.

"We didn't want anyone to know." He said, smiling at me. "Secret relationships are a lot more fun." He smiled at me and winked. I couldn't believe he just said that.

"How long have you 2 been 'secretly' dating?" Eiji asked meanly, using air quotations.

"A month." Kiryu said before I could even get a word in. I hadn't noticed that Kaoru had been here with Hattori until they skated up to us just now.

"Alex. I didn't know you were dating Kiryu." Kaoru smiled at Kiryu.

"Secrets." Kiryu laughed.

"Yeah." Eiji said. "I can see why she wanted to keep it a secret." We all just stood there in an uncomfortable silence for a second until another slow song started and the girl that Eiji brought tugged on his arm.

"Honey. Can we skate this song, it's my favorite." She sounded like a blonde bimbo the way she had asked that, but Eiji looked at her and smiled such a warm smile that I was taken aback for a minute.

"Sure. Kiryu." He said, gliding past us. He took the girl by the hand and pulled her gently to him, them skating away like a happy couple. I stared after them, not completely sure why she irritated me so much, but she did. I watched for a minute, getting a nasty taste in my mouth as Eiji said something and made her laugh and held her close to him.

Hattori and Kaoru also skated off, followed by Momo and his date.

"Do you want to skate?" Oishi asked his girlfriend, she glanced at me and accepted his hand.

"This is why I didn't want to tell your friends about today." Kiryu said softly. I don't know why but I couldn't seem to take my eyes off Eiji and the girl he was with.

"It's not like we really had a choice just now." I said finally tearing my eyes away from them. "If you had just been honest in the beginning I wouldn't be in this mess." I said, thinking for a second that if maybe I hadn't been here with Kiryu there was the open possibility that I could've came with Eiji.

"I'm sorry." He said, putting his forehead on mine. "I really am."  
"It's alright." I said feeling guilty. "I did agree to help you."

"You know he's doing that on purpose, don't you?" Kiryu said, smiling at me.

"Doing what?" I asked, confused.

"Flirting with that girl that he brought."

"Of course he's doing it on purpose. If he wants to get kissed tonight, he's going to have to pull out all the stops." There it was again, that nasty taste in my mouth.

"Or maybe he's trying to make someone jealous." He hinted.

"Who here would be jealous of that?" I asked, looking around. Kiryu grabbed my face in with both hands and stared into my eyes.

"You can't think of any possibility?" He asked staring at me so seriously that I couldn't say anything. "I might kiss you right now." He whispered.

"I thought we agreed on the limits." I whispered back.

"That's not exactly saying no." Kiryu said, leaning towards me.

"I…" I started to say but then my world turned into nothing but pain as someone collided with Kiryu which caused Kiryu to crash into me and the next thing I know, I'm laying on my stomach with something digging painfully into my ribs. I tried to roll over, but the pain in my side was only hurting more.

"Get off." I said, struggling for breath. I was aware that a weight had been lifted off of me and I successfully rolled over, sucking air into my lungs. "What the hell." I shouted as soon as I had enough breath for it. I looked up to see Eiji, a very bright pink, with Kiryu untangling themselves.

"I-I-I'm sorry." Eiji stuttered. "I was.. I did.. I tried to stop."

"You did that on purpose." I yelled, it felt like I was drooling but when I reached up to wipe away the spit I came to find out that I was actually bleeding.

"Are you alright?" Kiryu asked, crawling over to me. I glared at Eiji.

"I'm fine." I said, getting up and starting to skate towards the bathroom holding my hand to my mouth so that I wouldn't drip blood everywhere.

In the bathroom, as I rinsed out my mouth one of the girls from Kiryu's group of friends came in to see if I was alright.

"I'm fine."I told her honestly. "Just a little spill." I looked into the mirror and on the left side of my face there was a deep cut on my lip and it was a little swollen.

"Kiryu really does like you." She said, watching me in the mirror. I dabbed at the cut, not looking back at her. "My name is Yumi. You know, I always thought that maybe me and Kiryu would get together, we've been friends since childhood and I just figured that he would come around eventually." Now I looked at her through the mirror. She looked like she was going to cry and I felt the overwhelming guilt building up in me.

"I loved him, so take care of him. Please." I swallowed as she said that and I wanted to answer her, but I didn't know how?

"Love is still a long ways off." I told her carefully. "I don't think I can make any promises?" Was I a terrible person for agreeing to help Kiryu lie to the girl that truly loved him?

"I can see that he likes you." She said. "I just don't know how much yet, but I think given time it might just turn into more than that." I don't think so, I thought internally.

"Look. We're just dating, and honestly, I don't think it's really anything serious." I turned to look her in the face and she finally seemed to get the concept.

"Right. I'm sorry to have bothered you."

"It's alright. I understand that you just want the best for him." She smiled and left me in the bathroom dabbing at my cut.

This was turning into quite the day. How had I gone from helping out Kiryu, to getting my friends to hate me, to sitting alone in the girls bathroom feeling sorry for myself?

One thing I knew for sure was that this was all Kiryu's fault.


	10. A Mutual Understanding

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Prince of Tennis or any characters

* * *

**Eiji's POV**

On Monday after practice, I almost decided not to go meet everyone at the wall because I didn't really want to see Alex. I was still embarrassed that I had skated into them just to keep them from kissing. It was the only thing I could think of at the time and after I seen that Alex was hurt I was mad at myself.

"C'mon." Shuichiro said. "It's not like you to avoid things."

"With her, it's different." I told him, following him in that general direction anyway.

"I know it is." He sighed. "Why don't you tell her that you like her? That could solve all your problems."

"She's dating Kiryu now. I should've told her from the beginning." Why was I feeling like this? It wasn't like me to call it quits before the end of a game.

"I don't know man." Shiuchiro sighed. "They say love changes for you for the best." We rounded the corner to the wall and everyone was there except Alex. I hopped up on the small wall and watched for Alex.

"Did you guys have fun on Saturday?" Tezuka asked us, not looking up from his book.

"Yeah." Momo said. "Did anyone else know that she was dating Kiryu Endo?" Shusuke spit his pop everywhere and started coughing.

"What?" He asked between his coughs.

"Yeah." Momo said, digging through his backpack for something. "She was all snuggled up with him, skating with him and his friends like she didn't have a care in the world on Saturday."

"Well no wonder she kept turning me down." Shusuke said, wiping his hands on his pants in an attempt to clean them.  
"They do seem to get along quite well together." Sadaharu said. "But I was not aware that they were an item."

"He said that secret relationships were more fun." I said angrily remembering the smirk he gave me right after he winked at her.

"No doubt she was the one who wanted to keep it a secret." Sadaharu said. Everyone looked at him curiously and he explained further. "In her year, Alex is quite popular and she spends 40 percent of her time with us. No doubt she didn't want us to know because there is a lot testosterone among us." If this wasn't such a serious conversation, I would've busted up laughing but he made sense.

"Among her concerns could be the possibility that we are going to try to intimidate him, warning him that if he hurts her he'll have to answer to us. In the end that could scare him away, he is somewhat more fragile than the male should be." I thought about that one and I groaned internally as the odds of that happening were high.

"Well I know that's what I'm going to do." Shusuke said.

"As am I." Kaoru said. Everyone looked at him and he hissed. "What? She's my friend and I don't want to see her get hurt."

"I probably would say something too." Shuichiro said. "I would also like Kiryu to know that if he's just messing with her that he's messing with the wrong girl."

"Me too." I said quietly. I was watching towards the gate when I saw Alex come into view. I jumped off the wall and waited while she made her way to us. I felt my face get hot when Kiryu intercepted her and they started talking. I shook my head and turned to head off to class even though the bell hadn't rung yet.

In my first hour Haruna came and found me.

"Did you have fun on Saturday?" She asked me. I thought about Alex and Kiryu together and almost said no when I thought about the question and knew she wasn't talking about that.

"Yeah." I smiled. "You know, leaving out my collide with Alex and Kiryu." She laughed and I started doodling random things in my notebook.

"Well I was wondering if maybe you'd like to do that again, just you and me." I looked at her and she turned a bright shade of pink.

"Yeah. I would like that." I will never understand why I had just said that. She smiled and I felt so guilty that I was giving her false hope.

"Great. Are you free on Friday?" I looked out the window and seen Alex and Kiryu sitting under a tree talking and the guilt seemed to disappear.

"Yeah. I'm free on Friday." The first bell rang and I watched as Kiryu helped Alex up and they started off towards class together.

The first half of the day passed by slowly and by lunch, I was starving. Me and Oishi headed off to the cafeteria and joined everyone at the table. Alex joined us not soon after we got there and everything was so normal it was almost scary.

"Why did you do that?" I heard Alex ask Shusuke, getting my attention. "He told me that you talked to him."

"Did he tell you that I talked to him too?" Kaoru asked.

"Or me?" Sadaharu put in.

"Me too." Tezuka asked. Alex threw up her hands and all I could do was stare at Tezuka. He was the only one I was expecting not to talk to him.

"Why are you guys doing this?" She asked.

"None of us want to see you get hurt." Shusuke said. "So if he really likes you, he has nothing to fear."

"But it's not like that." Alex said.

"Then how is it?" Kaoru asked.

"Well." Alex said, "It's more complicated than that."

"How complicated can him liking you and you liking him be?" I asked, a little annoyed.

"It's just," She started but to all of our surprises Kiryu came and sat down next to her on the end of the table.

"What did I miss?" He asked, smiling like nothing was wrong. I stared at him like he was crazy.

"Hey Kiryu." Momo said, the first one to recover. Everyone greeted him except me.

"Sorry to surprise you guys on Saturday." He laughed. "We were going to tell you, but we just didn't know when. Honestly I thought you were guys were going to be harder on me."

"You've still got 3 of us to survive buddy." Momo said cooly.

"As long as I'm serious about her I'm in the clear, yeah?" He asked, putting his arm around her. He smiled at her and she smiled back, obviously relieved about something.

"Just don't slip up at the finish line." I growled and got up without touching my food. I was so mad that I made my way to the tennis courts. I sat on the bleachers, bouncing a tennis ball off the fence and catching it. Maybe if I had told her how I felt before, this wouldn't be a problem.

"AAAHHHHH." I screamed, whipping the tennis ball as hard as I could.

"I haven't heard you scream like that in quite some time." I heard a familiar voice behind me.

"Yeah, well I haven't felt this frustrated in some time." I said, without turning to look at Shuichiro.

"I know. I noticed." He sat down on the bleachers some ways away and bounced the ball at an angle so that it bounced towards me. We didn't talk for a minute, just bouncing the ball back and forth.

"I don't really know what to tell you man." Shuichiro confessed.

"You can't tell me anything." I said.

"This is a whole different game that has no rules." He said, tossing the ball at me with some force.

"You're telling me?" I asked.

"You know, I honestly thought that eventually you 2 would end up together." He scoffed. "You know, I can tell she likes you too."

"She has a weird way of showing it." I told him.

"Yeah. Girls are so complicated. You can't live with them…"

"And you can't live without them." We said in unison. In spite of myself, I had to laugh. We sat there in silence some more, just tossing the ball back and forth and I felt a little bit better.

The lunch bell rang and we got up and headed back into the school.

"Are you going to be alright?" Shuichiro asked. I nodded and headed off to class. During my last class free period, I went to the library and started to study.

"So you're really dating that American girl Alex Cross?" I looked up at Alex's name and saw Kiryu walking with a group of friends. I left my stuff there, and followed them on the other side of a book shelf, listening.

"Yeah." He said.

"Dude, why didn't tell us you were dating her?"

"I don't know? We just didn't want to tell anyone."

"Why her?" One of his friends asked. "Why not one of the other girls that fancy you?"

"I don't know. I just think she's different."

"Different. Are you feeling alright? That doesn't sound like you." The boys laughed and I just listened as they found a table and continued to talk.

"I'm telling you, if I wasn't serious about her I wouldn't even have gone near her. You wouldn't believe me even if I told you what those tennis guys all said. If I was with her and I wasn't serious, I would probably end up dead in a month." So, the rest of the guys had got their point across and he was still with her.

"What did they say?" One of his friends asked.

"Just that if I was messing around with her that I was messing with the wrong girl." He said. There was a hand on my shoulder and I nearly jumped out of my skin. I looked around to see Alex standing next to me with her finger to her lips, telling me to shush.

She snuck her hand into mine and I followed her as she led me to the 2nd floor balcony and to the back.

"What is it?" I asked, not bothering to whisper cause no one came back this way. I don't even know why they had this part in the library, it was a complete waste of time and space.

"Have you talked to Kiryu yet?" She asked, letting go of my hand.

"No." I said, wondering if she only brought me back here to talk about Kiryu.

"Are you going to?" She asked.

"Yeah. I am." I said, honestly.

"It's not what you think it is." She said quietly, looking me in the eyes. I stared back at her, not breaking the stare down and I felt captivated by her.

"He's just using you." I said, angrily. "I knew it. I'm going to let him have it." I made to go after Kiryu but I felt Alex grab me and pull me to her. I wondered what she was doing when her lips bushed against mine so lightly that it tickled, and then she fully kissed me. I was taken completely off guard that I didn't react for a second and then I kissed her back. But just as I was starting, she pulled away and looked down at the ground.

"I know that you like me." She whispered. I felt my face get hot.

"So why didn't you say anything?" I asked, whispering back.

"Because me and you can't be together." She said.  
"Why not?" I asked, my heart feeling heavy.

"Because it's not fair."

"What's not fair?" I grabbed her by the chin and made her look me in the eyes.

"I can't give you my entire heart." She said, her eyes tearing up. "I may like you, but I can never love you." It felt like every time I took a breath, a small needle was being poked into my heart.

"What do you mean?" I asked, confused.

"It's not fair to be with someone if you can't eventually give them all you have." She said.

"How do you know if you've never tried?" I asked.

"Because I know myself very well and I'm not going to let you in." I stared into her eyes and knew that she was telling the truth. I thought about telling her that we could still be together and that I would wait, but I didn't know how true that was going to hold. She was right, we couldn't be together.

She leaned in closer to me and I thought for a second that she was going to kiss me again and my lips began to tingle with excitement. I closed my eyes and I felt her breath on my lips, soft and warm.

"So you understand that we can't?" She asked, her lips brushing mine so softly that they felt like eyelashes were being fluttered on them.

"Yeah." I said without moving my lips.

"Good." She said, pulling away from me and moving away. "When you talk to Kiryu, make sure that you're nice." With my eyes still closed, I listened to the sounds of her feet rushing away. I didn't open my eyes for a few more minutes, remembering the softness of her lips against mine and only wanting one more kiss.

How the hell did Kiryu get so damn lucky?


	11. Things Not Easily Forgotten

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Prince of Tennis or any characters

**Alex's POV**

I laid there on my bed, staring at the ceiling and thinking about the day.

"_Can I talk to you?" Kiryu said, coming up to me before I could reach the wall. _

"_Sure." I said, waiting for him to start. _

"_Umm. Maybe we can go somewhere and talk, it's about our relationship." He whispered. _

"_We're not in one." I laughed, trying to figure out what it was exactly that he wanted. _

"_Well maybe we can talk about being in one." He said. _

"_I can't date anyone right now." I told him. I had already told him that, so why was he even going there?_

"_I know. But what if we pretended to be in a relationship, for the sake of the show?" He asked, getting a twinkle in his eye that scared me. _

"_I don't understand." I told him. _

"_C'mon, walk with me and we'll talk." I allowed him to put his arm around my waist and we walked to the side of the school where there was a large tree and we sat under it. _

"_I already told you that I'm not going to date anyone." I said as he sat down close to me. _

"_I know. There's something that's keeping you from dating anyone, am I correct?" How did he know that? "I'm in the same predicament and I think we can help each other out." _

"_I still don't understand." I said, looking at him. _

"_For someone so smart, you're pretty slow." He laughed and I had to hit him. "We could pretend to be together and thus solving all the problems of having to explain more then to once to people why we're not dating anyone." I saw his plan but I didn't know if that was something I was willing to do. _

"_So you just want to go around lying to everyone about us?" I asked, remembering what his childhood friend had said to me in the girls bathroom. How did I know that I wasn't hurting more people like her, and what about Eiji? _

"_Well, we're not really lying because we would be together but just not in the way that everyone thinks." I shook my head. _

"_It's still lying." _

"_Yes, but people would stop bugging us for dates and why we're not dating." He said, obviously frustrated. I was having that problem with Shusuke and that would give me a reason to stay away from Eiji. _

_Last night Ryoma had finally gotten me to see that I really liked Eiji and told me to just come out and tell him. That was my plan when I came into school this morning. _

"_How are we going to pull this off?" I asked, caving in. _

"_It's not that hard, we just need to tell people that we're dating. Have been for a month and let the rest unfold." _

"_So we're together." I said, laughing. How was I letting Kiryu talk me into all this crap? _

"_Well, we'll both have to play the part. Holding hand, snuggling, kissing." _

"_Stop right there." I told him. "I'm not just going to go around kissing you all the time." _

"_Who said all the time?" He asked. "But eventually we will." _

"_Alright." I said, hating myself already. The bell rang and Kiryu jumped up. _

"_Let me help my girlfriend to her feet." He said, laughing. _

"_Shut up." I hissed. _

And of course what happened with Eiji. I couldn't believe that I had kissed him. It's not like I planned on it or anything, it kind of just happened. I felt my face grow hot as I remembered that kiss. I turned into my pillow and screamed. What the heck was I doing?

"Alex." Ryoma called from the living room. "Telephone."

"I'm coming." I said, hopping off my bed and going to living room.

"Who is it?" I asked.

"Leon." Ryoma said, smiling.

"Hey." I grabbed the phone from Ryoma and headed into the kitchen, trying to find something to snack on.

"Hey." He answered in French. We always talked in French even though he could speak Japanese. "How was your day?" I thought about it and answered.

"It could've gone better." I told him.

"What happened?"

"Nothing huge. Just this kid I'm…" I was so tempted to just come right out and tell him about the whole 'pretend dating' thing, but then thought better of it. "Dating." There was silence on the other end of the phone and I could already hear his mind calculating.

"What's his name? How long have you been dating?"

"His name is Kiryu and we've been dating a month now."

"A month. And you never brought it up?" He sounded angry.

"You never asked." I told him, trying to get away.

"So every time we talk, I have to ask specific questions or you're not going to tell me?" He almost shouted.

"It's not that big of deal. It's nothing serious."

"Then why are you dating him?" I couldn't answer him and I could feel that he was almost working the whole situation out already, he knew me so well. "Don't play with this kids feelings Alex."

"I know what I'm doing Leon, so don't tell me what to do like you're Brian." I regretted saying it even before it left my mouth, but I just stayed quiet and waited for him to say something.

"When are you going to talk about the accident?" He asked. I scoffed.

"When I feel like it."

"Well when are you going to feel like it?" Leon said, pushing me.

"I don't know." I said carefully.

"What happened didn't only affect you you know."

"I know that."

"Then quit acting like it did and grow up." He shouted.

"Maybe when you drop off the face of this earth, I will." I shouted back and hung up. Tears stung my eyes and I took a couple of minutes to regain my composure.

"Are you alright?" Ryoma whispered in the doorway to the living room.

"Yeah." I said, going to cupboard and finding some cookies. "Leon is just being dumb." I laughed.

"No doubt." Ryoma said, sitting on a stool across from me. I leaned on the counter and offered him the box of cookies. We sat in silence eating cookies, neither one of us wanting to ask the question that was left hanging in the air.

"You know Leon is only trying to help." Ryoma said, not eating the cookie he took out of the box.

"I don't need his help." I said rather meanly. Ryoma looked at me with that look that said otherwise. I didn't look at him, but just stared at the counter. Was I really acting like I was the only one that went through that?

It's not like I didn't want to talk about, but every time I even heard Alice or Brian's name it felt like I was going to be swallowed by some big black hole.

"It would be alright it if you wanted to talk about it." Ryoma said, giving me a sad smile.

"I know." I said, not returning his smile. "Am I being selfish, not talking about it?"

"No." Ryoma said in an understanding tone. "You're trying to be strong."

"Leon just doesn't understand." I told him. "Every time he talks about it I feel weak with him." A lump grew in my throat and I looked down at the counter again.

"You're not weak." Ryoma said, his voice reassuring and clear. I nodded and turned to put the cookies back in the cabinet.

"I've got some homework to finish." I said huskily and walked back to my room.

Back in my room, I started my homework and got through all of it in one sit trying to clear my head of the accident. I wasn't doing a good job when Ryoma knocked on the door.

"Are you alright?" He asked me. I nodded and instantly knew that I wasn't fooling him for one second. I got up and grabbed my jacket.

"Where are you going?" Ryoma asked, concern lining his words.

"Just to get some fresh air." I told him, slipping on my shoes at the front door and taking off at a run. I hated Leon and the fact that he knew about the accident. Why couldn't he just let it go?

I ran until my legs almost gave out on me and only then did I look to even see where I was, my breath coming in ragged strides.

I was in a busy part of town and I tried to look around for some land mark that I knew so that I could possibly find my way home. I walked down the road some more and a piano in a window caught my eye. I looked through the window and seen about 4 piano's on sale. It wasn't a very big store, so I went in.

"How may I help you?" A lady asked me. She had to be in her early 30's.

"I'm just looking." I said, a flutter in my stomach.

"Let me know if you need anything." She smiled. I walked over to the far wall and started looking at sheet music, remembering all the practice I had put into 90% of these songs. The bell over the door rang and another couple came in and starting talking to the clerk. From the sounds of it they were talking about a music competition that had just happened.

I set down the sheet music and wondered to a grand that was in the corner. I loved Grand pianos, I tapped a few keys and instantly my fingers were itching to play like some chemical reaction.

"You can play if you'd like." The clerk lady was standing not too far away and had left her 2 friends at the desk.

"I only came to look." I said, not taking my fingers off the piano.

"It never hurt anyone for a test drive." She said, winking at me. I closed my eyes and instantly I seen Alice's smiling face sitting at our piano at the house patting the seat next her, like she was telling me to come and play for her. I opened them and sat down at the Grand.

I did a quick scale and the notes felt like they were vibrating within me and I smiled. I couldn't believe that I had shut music out for a year. Without really thinking, I let my fingers slide across the familiar space and I started playing Canon in D major by Pachebel. The song instantly set my soul at ease and it was almost like I could feel the ghost of Alice sitting next to me as I played.

I remembered all the time's that she had sat there and listened to me play while I practiced for all the recitals and helped me pick out sheet music for each one. I smiled and closed my eyes, playing the song from memory and letting my fingers slide across each key effortlessly.

As the song was coming to a close, I felt like I was going to cry so before the tears could come I played Ryoma's favorite song, Rondo Alla Turca by Mozart and imagined Ryoma's smiling face. He had always made sure that he was at all my recitals, even on the days he had a tennis tournament. He had always told me that he would finish the guy he was scheduled to play in as little time as possible and make it to my recital. He never once broke his promise to me.

I finished the song and let the ending ring through the small store, and opening my eyes, I remembered where I was. I felt my face grow hot and I looked up to see the clerk and her 2 friends watching me so carefully that it made me blush even more.

"I-I-I'm so sorry." I whispered.

"That was beautiful." The clerk said.

"I've never heard anything like it." The man said.

"You play so well." Her other friend said.

"It's been a while since I was able to get to a piano." I said.

"How long has it been?" The clerk asked me.

"Umm.. Just under a year." I said, looking down at the floor.

"You haven't played in a year?" The other lady asked me incredulously, like I was lying to her? I shook my head no and she continued to stare at me.

"Have you ever played in any music contests?" The clerk asked me.

"Back in the states I had plenty of recitals." I shrugged.

"Here." She said, grabbing a flyer and handing it to me. "There's a high school music competition. If you would like to join, just show up at the Wasabe Music Hall next Friday. It's a 2 day competition so make sure you have plenty of pieces picked out just in case." I looked at the flyer and read through it.

"Thank you." I said already deciding not to go.

"I hope to see you there." Her friend said. "I'm going to be judging and those songs were so beautiful." I smiled at her and got up to go.

"Come again, if you need a place to practice." The clerk called to me. I nodded and headed back outside, searching for any familiar landmark that I recognized. Maybe I could call Nanjiro to come and pick me up. I looked down at the competition flyer and continued to walk, not really going in a specific direction and I noticed where I was.

I started walking home, giving this music competition more thought than it was worth and by the time I decided that maybe I was going to go check it out, I was half way home. I shook off the music competition and ran the rest of the way home.

"I'm here." I shouted in the doorway. Nanjiro jumped off the couch and Rinko came running from the kitchen.

"Are you alright?" Nanjiro asked.

"I'm fine." I told him, confused.

"Ryoma told us about Leon and that when you left you looked pretty bad." Rinko said, coming to me. "We were worried." I felt guilty that they were worried about me.

"I'm sorry. I was just upset at what Leon said so I went for a run to blow off steam." Nanjiro looked at me curiously and I smiled at him, truly sorry.

"It's alright kiddo." He said. "There's some leftover food in the kitchen. Why don't you go eat." Like my stomach reacted to what he said, it grumbled pretty loudly. I looked at the clock and it was already quarter to 9.

"I think I will." I told him. I sat at the kitchen table eating my dinner and all I could think about was that music competition. True that I had never actually been in a competition before, but how different could it actually be from my recitals?

I finished my food and went to my room. Ryoma knocked on my door as I was getting ready for a shower.

"Hey." I smiled, still not being able to get that frickin competition out of my mind.

"Are you alright?" Ryoma asked.

"Yeah. Just going to shower up and head to bed." He stared at me for a minute, trying to decide something, no doubt and shook it off.

"About Leon…" He said.

"Already forgotten about it." I told him, grabbing my towel. "Try not to lose sleep over it." I laughed and went to jump in the shower. After my shower, I dried my hair and went to bed. Maybe it wasn't that bad, playing 1 or 2 songs every once in awhile.

**A/N: So for the songs, if you would like to listen to them go to youtube and go to lockdown 42's channel. This is the best quality I can find for each song and it's what I was listening to as I wrote this chapter. Thanks and hope you enjoy P.S… R & R**


	12. Nightmares and Harsh Words

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Prince of Tennis or any characters

* * *

**Alex's POV **

"_This isn't just a regular game that we're playing." Alice was saying at the piano. I stood in the window, watching it pour rain outside. _

"_I told you that I wasn't going to play in this tournament because I had a recital today. This is really important. Do you have any idea how many people are going to be there to watch me? This is my big chance, everything that I've worked for for the past year." _

"_And what about what we worked for for the past year?" Alice shouted. "Do you think that only your dreams count?" _

"_You can do this without me." I said, not looking at her. _

"_Maybe Brian and the team can, but I can't. You are the only one I can play with without practice." _

"_I can't." _

"_This is the Nationals." She shouted at me. _

"_And you've been to the nationals 2 years in a row. This is the beginning of my life." I shouted back. _

"_You really want to play the piano instead of playing tennis?" She asked. _

"_I thought you understood?" I asked, hurt that she had turned out just like Brian. _

"_I understand that you're good, great at playing the piano, but you can't tell me that you don't want to play tennis at all." She asked. _

"_Playing tennis is fun, and I do love to play. But it's not the lifestyle that I want. I want to change people through music, when people hear me play and appreciate music, that's what I want. Not the life a tennis Pro." _

"_Don't you want to be like mom and dad?" She pushed. _

"_Dad has Brian and mom has you. Where do I fit in in that scenario?" I shouted. "I found something that makes me happy, why is that so hard for everyone to except?" _

"_You're being so selfish right now it's unbelievable." She shouted. _

"_I'm being selfish?" I asked, finally turning to her. "All 4 of you are the ones trying to suffocate me into playing tennis when I don't want to. How am I being selfish when you're all the ones pushing your dreams on me?" I stood there, fuming for a minute waiting for her retort._

"_You're right. I'm sorry." She looked at me with such a sad expression that it hurt me to see her like that. It made me feel like I was the bad guy here._

"_Good luck today." I said, trying for a smile. _

"_You too. I know you'll do a good job." She picked up her racket that was leaning on the piano and got up. I wanted to say something to her, anything that would stop the guilt from eating at me. _

"_Go on honey." My dad said to my mom in the kitchen. "I'll go with Alex to her recital and you can show me the tapes after the championship." My mom pecked my dad on the lips and helped Alice grab her stuff. _

"_Good luck Brian." I called. He stopped to look at me and gave me a look that said he wouldn't need it and headed out the door without saying anything to me. A lump formed in my throat and I went back to the piano and sat there, staring at the music I had picked out. _

_This was it, this was going to decide my music career. _

"_Are you ready sweetheart?" My dad asked. I collected up my music and headed to the door. I opened the door and when I went through it there was Brian in his hospital bed. _

"_I'm so sorry." I cried to Brian. "I wish I could go back and change everything." _

"_Don't be silly." He said tiredly. "Then there would be 2 of us in this hospital room." I couldn't stop the tears from coming. _

"_Don't leave me." I whispered, choking on the words. _

"_I should be the one to say that I would go back and change everything." Brian said, closing his eyes. "I wish I could've heard you play." I felt so helpless sitting there at his bed side, not being able to do anything but hold his hand. _

"_Don't." I cried. "Don't let go." _

"_It's o.k. Alex." He said, sounding far away. "I love you." _

"_Hold on." I said, holding onto his hand harder. "Don't give up. Please." _

"_Don't ever give up music." He whispered. "You can change the world the way you play." _

"_Please." I cried harder, my heart felt like it was going to stop beating any minute. _

"_I wouldn't leave you unless I knew you were in capable hands." He said._

"_No. No. No. No. Don't say that. Don't leave me." _

"_I'm so tired." He said, closing his eyes. _

"_Please, hold on. Please don't leave me." I held onto his hand crying and not being able to breathe. _

"_I love you. And I'm sorry that I never understood." _

"_It's o.k." I told him. "Listen if you hold on, I'll never play the piano again. I'll play tennis with you, just don't leave me here alone." I begged. _

"_I love you." He whispered, and the heart monitor started to beep. _

"_NO." I screamed, grabbing onto him. "Don't leave me here. I can't without you." I screamed, but I couldn't hear anything. Leon rushed to my side and was yanking me away from Brian's body as doctors and nurses came rushing in. _

"_Brian." I shouted, fighting tooth and nail against Leon to be by his side. "Don't leave me here. You can't." _

_It felt like both me and Leon were falling through the air, falling down into nothing. _

"_Let go." I shouted. "I have to get back to Brian." _

"Alex. Wake up."

"_Brian." I shouted, still fighting. _

"Wake up." I opened my eyes and I was fighting Ryoma and Nanjiro on my bedroom floor, tears streaking down my face, Rinko in the doorway.

"Brian." I cried, feeling myself shaking. Ryoma held onto me and I felt myself crying uncontrollably. "How come he left me here?"

"It's o.k." Ryoma said, holding onto me. "Shh."

"Why?" I cried. "Why didn't he hold on?" I couldn't understand why I was crying so much. I felt so weak, crying while Ryoma held onto me.

"It's not your fault." Ryoma said, hugging me. I probably cried for some time, before Ryoma got me back into my bed and Rinko laid with me while I cried.

"Why didn't he hold on?" I asked her.

"I don't know sweet pea." She said, stroking my hair. I cried some more and Rinko just stroked my hair. I probably cried for over an hour.

"I wish that I had just gone to that tournament." I said, tired. Rinko didn't answer but I felt the darkness closing in on me. "Then we could've gone as a family and dad wouldn't hate me."

I felt more tears coming and I wiped them away. I was finally so tired that I couldn't keep my eyes open and let the darkness consume me into nothing.

* * *

**Ryoma's POV **

I sat in the living room with my dad, waiting for my mom to come out of the room with Alex. I looked at the clock and it was 5:23 am. I wanted to talk just so we didn't have to sit there in silence, but I didn't know what to say.

My mom came out of her room, closing the door softly behind her and came and sat down in the living room.

"She'll be o.k." She said, sitting down next to my dad. "You know why she reacted, don't you?" We all looked at each other and we knew. Today was her birthday, November 23rd meaning that it was also Alice's birthday. We sat there in silence some more, not saying anything. I closed my eyes and all I heard were Alex's screams for Brian. I remembered that day in the hospital so clear that it could've been yesterday that it all happened.

"Why don't you go back to bed son." My dad said. "I'll call both of your schools and let them know that you're not coming in today." I nodded and went back to my room. I laid there staring at the ceiling until 8 o'clock, the time passing by so fast that it felt like only 20 mins. I had been laying there.

I knocked on Alex's door and peeked in to see that she was still sleeping. I went to the kitchen and poured myself a glass of milk, rubbing my eyes. I nearly jumped out of my skin when the phone rang.

"Hello."I answered.

"Hey." Said a happy voice on the other end. "Is Alex around?"

"Leon?" I asked.

"Yup. It's me. Where's Alex?"

"Still sleeping." I told him.

"Shouldn't she be up and ready for school?"

"She's staying home today." I said.

"Is she alright?"

"In a manner of speaking." I said mad.

"What happened?" He asked, worried.

"This is all your fault." I said through my teeth. "She had a nightmare about the day that Brian passed."

"I don't see how that's my fault." He said.

"Because the night before her birthday you had to push her into a corner, you have no idea what it's like with her." I shouted.

"I know that it's hard, but she has to come to terms with what happened." Leon said, not angry at all.

"You didn't hear her screaming last night." I shouted. "You're all the way in France not doing a damn thing but upsetting her. And who gets the back lash from that? I do. So why don't you do me a favor and just stay out it." I was almost going to hang up when Leon shouted back.

"I was there when it happened. I was there in that hospital room when he took his last breath, so don't tell me that I don't know what's going on."

"If you know how hard it is then why do you keep pushing her like she can handle it? You're not here to see her reaction every time you say his name. You're not here when she remembers something about that day and freezes up only for an instant. You're not here to watch her shut herself away from the one boy that could possibly help. So why don't you just let it go?"

"Brian and Alice were my family too. I just want to make sure that Alex is going to be o.k."

"Then every time you talk to her quit mentioning it until she wants to talk about it."

"Talking about it is healthy. It will help her in the long run."

"She told me every time she talks about it with you she feels weak." I told him angrily. "You are obviously not the right person to talk to because if you were, even mentioning it wouldn't set her back 5 feet. It's like she takes 2 steps forward and when she talks to you she ends up 5 feet back." There was silence on the other end and I knew that I had finally gotten to him.

"Do yourself a favor and quit trying to help. It's not doing anyone any good." And I hung up. I slammed my fist down on the counter more frustrated then I even knew.  
"Are you sure that was a good idea?" My dad asked. I almost jumped out of my skin again for the second time that morning.

"I was just telling him what's going on." I told my dad.

"He's only trying to help." My dad said softly.

"Well he isn't doing a very good job of it." I scoffed. "It's his fault that she reacted the way she did this morning." My dad shrugged his shoulders and started making coffee.

"Maybe Leon is right." My dad said. "Talking about it can help."

"How did you know that that's what he's trying to do?" I asked.

"I'm friends with his dad. Says Leon is doing quite well with the accident."

"Leon got over it and just wants everyone else to get over as quickly as he did."

"How are doing son?" My dad asked.  
"I'm fine." I told him, confused as to why he was even asking me that question.

"Are you sure about that?" He asked. I thought about it and shook my head. "You know what I think? I think you're using Alex's pain to lessen your own. You're trying to take care of her so that you don't have to come to terms with how you're feeling."

"I think your just reading too much into this." I told him, a funny feeling in my stomach. "Yeah, Brian and me were close but I know that he never wanted to leave."

"If you say so, but I'm here when you need to talk." He said. I nodded and we sat there in the silence for a while.

"What would you all like for breakfast?" My mom said, coming in and digging in the fridge.

"Over-easy eggs and bacon." I said. My dad nodded and she started cooking.

"How come no one woke me up for school?" Alex asked quietly, sitting down next to me.

"I thought that maybe you could use the day off." Nanjiro said, smiling at her. She stared at the table for a minute and I was worried that she was going to start crying again.

"Thank you." She whispered. I watched her throughout breakfast, almost afraid that she might finally snap. She finished her food and cleared her plate. When we heard her bedroom door close, my mom let out a pent up breath.

"Do you think she's really going to be alright?" I asked. My mom looked at my dad and he nodded.

"She's a tough girl. She'll find a way around this mess." I cleared my plate and also went back to my room, laying down on my bed and falling back asleep faster than I thought possible.

Alex would be alright, I had nothing to worry about. She always pulled through when it mattered the most.


	13. Comforting Words and Growing Up

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Prince of Tennis or any characters

* * *

**Ryoma's POV**

By the time I woke up, it was already 12:30. I couldn't believe that I slept that late. I groaned and got up, walking to the kitchen.

"Hey sleepy head." My mom smiled at me. I waved her off and went for the cookies in the cupboard.

"How's Alex?" I asked.

"She hasn't said a word since this morning." My mom said, worried.

"She still in her room?" I asked looking down the hall at her closed door.

"No. She's outside on the porch on the swing." I took the whole box of cookies with me and grabbed a blanket to go and join her.

"You know it's freezing out right?" I asked, handing her the blanket. She continued to stare at the deck and I sighed. "Are you alright?"

"No." She said quietly and my blood felt like it was froze in my entire body. So this was it, she was going to talk about the accident. "I feel so weak." She said her voice cracking.

"Why are you letting Leon get to you?" I asked. "He doesn't know anything."

"It's not Leon." She said with anger in her voice. I was taken aback for a minute at the sounds of it.

"What do you mean?" I asked carefully.

"I can't play 2 songs on the piano without freaking out." She almost shouted at me. I was so confused.

"What does that have to do with anything?" I asked softly.

"Yesterday when I ran away." She said crying. "I found a piano store and I played. That's why I freaked out this morning. I know it." I watched, stunned as the moisture from her breath created little clouds in front of her. I sat down and wrapped the blanket around her.

"You're not weak." I told her, trying to get across to her that she wasn't. It was normal the way she was acting considering what she went through.

"Why can't I just play one song?" She asked, sobbing. "Why is this so difficult?"

"It's o.k. that you can't play. After what happened, I don't think I would be able to play anymore either."

"Would you have quit tennis?" She asked me, looking at me with a tear streaked face.

"I don't know?" I said honestly. She took a piece of paper out of her back pocket and handed it to me. I unfolded it and stared at it for a minute, not really comprehending.

"It's a music competition. Next Friday. The lady at the store gave it to me." She wiped her tears and sucked up the sniffles, looking away into the distance. I stared at that sheet of paper in my hands, wanting to ask if she was going to enter or not, but not knowing how.

"Umm." Was all I could say.

"I thought about it. But I don't think I can after this morning." She said like she was reading my mind.

"This morning was just a hiccup. Don't let it bother you too much." I tried to comfort her.

"It's too late." She smiled sadly at me.

"Do you think you can avoid playing forever?" I asked as gentle as I could manage.

"You don't know what it does to me when I play." She said "The moment I play, it's relaxing and I feel at peace with the world, like I used to feel before the accident. But after I play, the guilt just eats at me until I can't handle it anymore." She wasn't looking at me, but I saw as she reached up to wipe the tears away.

"I remember that day so perfectly." I said, looking out past the road but not really seeing anything. "And I remember that he told you not to quit. He didn't understand, I know that, but he wanted you to continue playing." I urged her.

"I can't." She cried. "I can't even talk about it without crying."

"It's alright to cry. You're not weak for crying."

"But I feel like I am." She cried. "And I feel weak for running away from my dad, and I feel weak because I can't even play one lousy song on the piano without flipping out."

"The way that you're reacting to the accident is normal." I told her, trying to get my point across. "You're probably even dealing with it better than some other people would."

"Why do I feel all this?" She asked, no longer trying to hide the tears from me. "I want to talk about, I do. But I don't think I can bring myself to without going crazy."

"It's alright to not talk about it." I ran my fingers through my hair. "It's alright that you cry when you're reminded of it." She let out a sob and I held onto her while she cried. It wasn't like this morning when she had cried herself back to sleep with my mom, but just crying to let it all out. I got a lump in my throat and we just sat there together, her crying and me holding onto, her letting her know that she wasn't alone.

"Thank you." She whispered when she was done crying.

"For what?" I asked confused.

"For being so understanding. I promise you that I'm going to work harder and when I'm ready to talk about it, you'll be the first person I come to find." She looked me in the eyes and I saw no lies there, which made me so happy that I had to smile.

"Leon can go to hell." I told her softly and felt good when she laughed.

"Even though I may want him there now, I don't think he would do to well down there." We both laughed and Alex rested her head back on my shoulder and we sat there together, cuddled up under her blanket.

"You know." She whispered.

"Hmm." I said, as the November air blew around us soft but cold.

"Today wasn't such a bad birthday." I smiled to myself, glad that she was o.k.

"Happy Birthday." I whispered.

"Happy Birthday Alice." She whispered and we continued to sit there like that for a long time, not wanting to move because for once it looked like things might get better.

* * *

**Leon's POV**

I made another mini paper football and flicked it, trying to make it into the ashtray that was in the middle of the coffee table. I missed and started making another one. I had been sitting here doing this for 2 hours and by now the table was littered with mini paper footballs.

"Que faites-vous?" My sister asked me, coming in and sitting down next to me. I shrugged and continued what I was doing.

"I don't think I have seen you this upset since you came in 2nd place in that music competition behind Isaac." She said in French.

"That little prick didn't deserve to win." I said sourly at the memory.

"What's wrong big brother?" She asked, leaning on my arm and tickling it with her fingers.

"Nothing life or death." I said, flicking yet another one towards the ash tray and making it.

"You only do this when something is really bugging you." She pointed out.

"It really is bugging me, but I'll get over it." I told her, Ryoma's words were still ringing in my head from this morning.

_She takes 2 steps forward and when she talks to you she ends up 5 feet back._ Was that how it really went? I was just trying to help, but what good was I doing here?

"Monsieur." Our butler said coming into the large living room and looking at me. "Signore Tristan would like a word with you in his study."

"I'm coming. Thank you Maurice." I said, nodding. He made the slightest of bows to me and I started pushing all the paper into a large pile.

"Can I come to your recital tonight?" Aurore asked me, watching me as I wiped all the paper into the trash can and stood up to stretch.

"That's up to dad." I smiled at her. She could convince dad to give her anything she wanted.

"I know." She smiled back. "But I just want your permission." I shook my head and started to my dad's office, knocking on the door when I reached the room.

"Come in." Said a strong voice.

"You wanted to see me father?" I asked when I stepped through the door, closing it behind me.

"Yes Leon." My father said, going through some papers. "I wanted to make sure you got everything for tonight's recital ready."

"Yes Father. Everything is ready. My personal coach says that I'm going to be o.k. for tonight."

"Good." My father said, never really looking at me. "Tonight should go off without a hitch. Now for the music competition pre-lims next, I want to know what music you'll be playing and who you're going to use for an accompanist." I thought about it for a minute and was going to tell him who I wanted to help me out when something new came to my head, the only thing that could possibly help my situation.

"I'm not entering that contest." I told him. My dad finally looked at me.

"Excuse me?" He asked.

"You heard me." I said defiantly.

"And what are you going to be doing instead of music?" He asked. I could hear it underlining his words, he was laughing at me.

"I'm moving out." I told him soundly and clear.

"Don't be ridiculous." He actually laughed at me now. "And where are you going to come up with enough money to live on your own?"

"I have more than enough money for that."

"You've never lived a day on your own." My dad said, no longer laughing. "I put up with enough of your little run- off's over the years, like that bit that had you in America for a year. Now I think it's time that you saw what your potential is and started working on that."

"I don't need you to tell me my potential." I said carefully. "I get that enough from my teachers. Now please be my father and tell me that's o.k. that I do what I want."

"If I don't tell you, will that make you stay?" He asked.

"On the contrary." I said laughing at his arrogance. "I'm going with or without your permission. I'll see you at the recital tonight." I bowed and left the room going to mine to pack everything I could for what I was about to under-go. This was going to get rough, I already knew that much. So I was going to stick to my guns and no one was going to stop me.


	14. A New Arrival

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Prince of Tennis or any characters

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**Alex's POV**

I rolled out of bed this morning, feeling groggy and tired from last night. It felt like forever, but it was finally Friday. When I went back to school on Wednesday I had told all the guys that I had been sick and left it at that.

"Hey." Ryoma said as I came in the kitchen. "Stay up late working on your project?"

"Yeah. Almost until 2." I rubbed some sleep out of me eyes and poured some orange juice.

"How did it come out?" He asked, shoveling eggs into his mouth. I laughed and took some bacon.

"Alright. Not to my greatest liking, but I think I'll get a B on it at the least."

"So what have you got planned for the weekend?" Nanjiro asked both of us.

"Me and Sakuno are going to that new amusement park." Ryoma said, smiling and turning a hint of pink.

"I think me and Kiryu are going to do something, but that depends on him." I shrugged. I had told them that I had a new boyfriend and I could tell that Ryoma was still a little skeptical.

"Why don't you ask him if he wants to come to the amusement park? The more people the more fun it's going to be." Ryoma said finishing his eggs.

"Alright, I'll see and let you know." I told him, also finishing my breakfast.

"Well you kids have fun." Rinko said as we both got up to head out the door. We both waved and headed off.

At school, everyone was at the wall hanging out.

"Good morning." I said to everyone in general. Kiryu was waiting and pecked me on the cheek.

"So can we hang out this weekend?" I asked Kiryu.

"Now don't get mad." He said, holding up his hands so that I couldn't hit him. "But I tried to work on all my homework, but my sister's boyfriend was in crises and I had to help him out."

"So we really can't hang out this weekend?" I pouted, a little mad that I was probably going to spend the weekend alone. "I worked so hard to clear my weekend up."

"You can always just come over and help me finish." He said slyly and I busted up laughing as that got all the guys attention. I laughed even harder as not one of the guys wanted to cross that territory and tell him not to get fresh.

"Actually." I said, looking down at the ground. "Ryoma is going to that new amusement park and asked if we wanted to tag along." I shrugged it off and Kiryu just looked at me.

"That would be fun." He said, smiling at me.

"Yeah. Too bad we're not going."

"Hey." Shuichiro said. "Do you think he would mind if me and Aya tagged along. I've been wanting to go there for so long."

"I don't see why not." I shrugged.

"Cool. So me and Hattori can also tag along." Kaoru said, smiling.

"I don't see why not."

"And me and Kyoko." Momo said.

"Don't forget me and Haruna." Eiji said. That caught my attention. I didn't know that Eiji was actually dating Haruna?

"I can see this is going to be another group date." I laughed, not looking at Eiji. "I'll let Ryoma know. Oishi, I'll call you and you can tell everyone where to meet up." Just then the bell rang throughout the school and we all grabbed our stuff and headed into school.

"I'm really sorry that I can't come this weekend." Kiryu whispered walking next to me.

"It's alright. I probably won't go the amusement park anyway." I really did want to go, but now that Kiryu was out of the picture, it wasn't very likely.

"Why don't you ask one of the guys to go with you?" He asked.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"Why don't you ask Kunimitsu to go with you?" He said. "As a friend, of course." He added.

"Really. You don't mind?" I asked.

"Well, I do as your boyfriend." He said, winking at me. "But as your friend, I want you to have fun." I smiled and nodded.

"Alright. I'll ask him later." I said, thinking about it now.

"No better time than the present." Kiryu smiled meanly at me. "Hey Tezuka."

"I said I'll do it later." I hissed.

"Yeah." Kunimistu said, walking to us.

"I can't make it this weekend and Alex really wants to go to the amusement park and have some fun, I was wondering if you would go with as her. As a friend." He added at the end.

"I think I can manage, I only have one kid to teach this weekend at the club." He said, thinking about it.

"Great. Thanks for the favor man." Kiryu grabbed my hand and we started off towards my class.

"Why are you doing this to me?" I hissed, yanking my hand out of his grip when we were out of sight of all the boys.

"What's the matter? You want to go don't you?" He asked.

"I do, but this is another group date and I don't want to go with Tezuka as a friend." I thought about having to watch Eiji with Haruna the whole time and I was already sick to my stomach.

"Eiji isn't dating Haruna officially yet." Kiryu said softly like he was reading my mind.

"That's not what I care about." I said leaning against the wall, although I had to admit that that was a big part of it.

"If you like him then what harm is it going to do in saying so?"

"I already told him that I liked him." I said looking at the floor and remembering our brief kiss.

"So what's the problem?" Kiryu asked.

"The problem is that I have a boyfriend." I said, glaring at him.

"Well why didn't you say so? We can just stage a break up."

"Who are you really trying to help here?" I asked as the bell rang. I stood there, leaning against the wall, waiting for an answer.

"I thought that if I had a girlfriend, that it would stop all the harassing that I get from other girls. But lately they're all just trying to be like you now thinking that I'll go for them."

"This isn't really helping either of us." I said softly.

"You know." Kiryu said, coming closer to me. "I think I really do like you."

"I told you that I would help you, but if that's the case then I can no longer pretend to be your girlfriend." I told him. I was trying make it as clear as I could and he just wasn't listening.

"Yeah. I know. That's why I asked about the break-up." He said softly.

"I just can't be in a relationship right now."

"I know." He said, looking at me with sad eyes.

"I'm sorry." I said.

"It's alright. I knew that from the beginning. So how do you want to do this?"

"Why don't we talk about it some other time and get to class?" He laughed and put his arm around me.

"Do you think we can still be friends?"

"Depends on our manner of break-up." I told him, laughing.

The whole day went like any other day and I sat out on the wall with Kiryu while the boys were at practice.

"So how did you do on your test?" Kiryu asked when I got to the wall. I threw my stuff down and hopped up on the wall next to him.

"I did good. Probably not great but who needs it." I laughed.

"Umm. A-Alex." It was Ayumi. She was such a shy, timid girl that I had to wonder why she chose to talk to me all the time? "There's someone here who says he knows you?" I looked at her and wondered who it could possibly be?

"I'll be right back Kiryu." I said, going with Ayumi.

"Sure." Kiryu said.

"So how did you do on the test in Mr. Matsuda's class?" I asked her, trying to make conversation.

"I did good." She said, quietly.

"Good." I said. We walked in silence and I couldn't really think of anything to say so I felt awkward. She stopped and stared in the direction of the front gate. I looked up and saw with great surprise, Leon.


	15. Leon

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Prince of Tennis or any characters.

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**Alex's POV**

All I could do was stare. What was he doing here? When he looked up and saw me, his face lit up in a smile.

"Long time no see." He yelled, waving to me.

"What are you doing here?" I asked when I was within earshot without having to yell.

"I came here all the way from France and this is the hello I get?" He laughed. I had to laugh as well.

"Of course I'm happy to see you." I said, giving him a hug. "It's just a surprise, that's all. You couldn't send me a pre-warning or anything?" I had to admit that my day had really just gotten better, but I already had a good idea why he was here and I wasn't in the mood. I hadn't talked to him since my birthday and seeing him face to face I didn't really know what to say.

"Are you hungry?" He asked, skipping my question. "My treat." He flipped his credit card between his fingers.

"Just give me a minute to get my stuff." I said, smiling. I ran back to the wall and picked up all my stuff.

"Something came up." I said, out of breath from the sprint. "I'll see you on Monday and we'll talk about the break-up." I smiled at him, waiting for him to say something.

"Sure." Kuryu started to say. "Have fun tomorrow." And without saying another word, I took off running towards the main gate.

"Sorry it took so long." I said, out of breathe by time I reached Leon.

"It's no problem. I've got all the time in the world." He said, smiling. I blushed at his smile. It was just like old times, I don't know why I always felt so self conscious around him but I did.

"Stop that." I said, looking down at the ground.

"Stop what?" He asked, laughing.

"You know what." I accused him. He just chuckled and I laughed again.

"Let me get your bag." He said, grabbing it out of my hands before I could even protest. "Where do you want to go? Anywhere is fine with me."

"Let's go to this noodle shop." I said already tasting the hot noodle's of my favorite place. "You'll love it."

"I bet I will." He said winking at me. Once again I blushed and felt stupid for it.

"Quit that." I hissed getting into the passenger side of the car and slamming the door. Leon put my stuff in the back of his car and got in.

"So where to boss?" I gave him directions to the noodle shop and all the way there we talked about what we were doing in school and how we were.

"So you know Aurore has been asking about you." Leon said when we sat down in a booth near the back and ordered.

"How is your little sister?" I asked drinking some water.

"She's good." He told me, looking around. "She would be better if you stopped by half as much as you used to."

"Life's no picnic." I told him staring at him across the table. "I can't."

"Yeah, don't I know that?" He said, laughing. The bell above the door rang to let the cashier know that there were customers, but my back was to the door and I didn't see who had walked in.

"Why are you running away?" Leon asked seriously in French. I knew what he was talking about.

"It's a lot more difficult then you can imagine." I said, also in French.

"He was my best friend." Leon said, looking at me with those piercing green eyes. He reached for my hands, but I pulled them off the table.

"And it was my family." I told him. "You couldn't even begin to fathom what I'm going through. If this is the only reason that you came then you might as well catch the next flight home cause you're wasting your time." Leon seemed to think about it for a minute and shook his head.

"That's not really going to go over so well considering that I got a place here."

"You what?" I asked, trying to believe what I just heard.

"I paid the first 2 months in advance for the setup I got. It's pretty sweet, you should come check it out." I shook my head as the waitress brought us our food.

"Yeah." He said, starting on the noodles. "I figured you were going to need my help now more than ever. So I'm here to stay, I start your school on Monday."

"Wait." I said, coughing on my noodles. "You what?" The bell over the door rang again and all I could do to not choke was drink some water.

"Yeah. I once told you that if you ever needed me, I was only a phone call away. Since you seem to have forgotten how to use the phone, here I am in the flesh." I know that he had a good intention, but I wasn't about to let him in after shutting out everyone for over a year.

"I don't need your help." I said.

"From the looks of it you do." He said cooly.

"Don't." I warned him.

"When's the last time you even said his name?" Leon asked me, daring me to lie to him. The problem was that I couldn't. "When's the last time you laughed at a good memory of him? When's the last time you picked up a racket?" He went on. With each question, I felt a sting to my heart.

"I picked up a racket the other day." I told him.

"When's the last time you played a real game of tennis?" He asked rephrasing his question. This one I had no answer to. "I'm here to help."

"You will never be able to help." I told him, my voice dark. "It wasn't your family that died. You couldn't possibly know what I'm going through."

"It sure as hell wasn't my family," He almost yelled. "But you're not handling the situation right."

"How am I supposed to deal with it then?" I asked, tears threatening to spill over. "Tell me that there's some right way to lose the other half of you. Tell me if there's some way to make the pain of losing your twin sister, your brother and your mother in 1 day, go away. Tell me how I'm not supposed to feel guilty about not being in that car at the same time. Tell me how I'm supposed to deal with my own dad blaming me and knowing it's true. Tell me how I'm supposed deal with this." I refused to cry. I refused to show weakness after being so strong for a whole year on my own. Leon was quiet for a minute, just looking at me with an expression I knew so well. Sadness mixed with Pity.

"I can't." He said, quietly. "I didn't know that that was all going on with your dad. I'm sorry."

"I told you that you couldn't help me." I said, looking down at my untouched noodles.

"It's not.." He began.

"Let's just drop it." I smiled, pushing the tears and the built up sadness to the back of my mind.

"Yeah. Alright." He smiled sadly. "So how's Ryoma?" It was a little difficult, but once we let the accident conversation go, we started talking about old times and I found myself truly laughing for the first time in over a year.

"No." I laughed. "Don't do it." He had put an ice cube on the end of his spoon and was going to pound the end of it and catch the ice cube in his mouth.

"You don't even know how good I've gotten." He flicked it and caught the ice cube and I had to laugh. I clapped and he pretended to bow.

"How did you do that?" I laughed.

"It's called skill." He said. I finished my noodles and smiled at him. "You were right. Those were the best noodles that I've had in long time." I nodded and drained my pop too. I checked my watch and looked across at Leon.

"Are you ready?" I asked. He looked around to make sure that he hadn't forgot anything and after he paid the bill, we headed out to the parking lot and to his car.

"So can we hang out this weekend?" Leon asked.

"Yeah." I said, getting in the passenger side of his car and buckling up. On the way back to my house he played me a couple of songs that were his favorite and asked my opinion on them.

"Can I come in for a minute?" He asked when he pulled up to Nanjiro's house. I was pretty sure that everyone would be happy to see him.

"C'mon." We walked up the walkway and when I got in the doorway I yelled to whoever was home. "Hey. I have a surprise for everyone." Ryoma was the first one to come and see followed by Rinko and Nanjiro.

"Leon." They all gave him a hug and were smiling.

"How are you?" Rinko asked.

"Good." Leon said, smiling more than anyone.

"What brings you to Japan?" Nanjiro asked.

"Just thought I could be of some help to a certain person." He winked at me and Nanjiro, Rinko and Ryoma had smiles on their faces so big that I had to think this was more than a coincidence. I shook my head and Rinko jumped in before I could say anything.

"Why don't we all go in the kitchen and have some ice cream." I smiled and we all went in the kitchen and talked about old times with Leon's family and laughed.

"I have a lot of homework to get done." I said, finishing my ice cream.

"Yeah. I better get going. Still gotta set up my new place." Leon said.

"Your new place?" Rinko asked.

"Yeah. My dad gave me permission to come and stay over here for the time being." I rolled my eyes and pushed him towards the door.

"Come on Mr. Helpful. I've got homework to finish." He put most of his weight against me, and I had to work to get him to the door.

"I just want to hang out." He whined, getting his shoes on. I had to stifle a laugh. Truly just like old times.

"Come on." I said, walking with him to his car. "I have homework to do. Don't be a bad influence on me."

"So do you want me to come and pick you up here tomorrow?" He asked and I had to think about that one for a second.

"Yeah. We're all going to this new amusement park tomorrow. That should be fun and it's a huge group date kind of thing so there's going to be a lot of us." He stood there for a minute just staring at me, and once again I felt self conscious.

"What?" I asked quietly.

"I just missed you, that's all." He stepped forward and gave me a small hug.

"I missed you too." I said, hugging him back. It was a longer hug than normal, but hugging him made me remember everything that used to be and I don't know why, but I hung onto him longer then I should've.

"Are you alright?" He asked me taking my face in his hands and making me look at him.

"Yeah." I whispered. "It's just weird seeing you after all this time."I laughed. He continued to look at me and I had to shake him away.

"I'll see you tomorrow." He said, climbing into his car.

"I'll be waiting." He winked and sped off. I shook my head and watched his car until it disappeared around the corner. I sighed and walked back into the house.

Now tomorrow was going to be fun. And having him around school, oh boy.


	16. Pushing the Limits

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Prince of Tennis or any characters

**A/N**: **I'm so sorry that it's taken this long to update but I have hit a serious writers block. I hope I have another chapter up soon. Sorry for the wait and hope you enjoy.**

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**Leon's POV**

I was awoken on Saturday morning by my phone ringing.

"Bonjour." I answered groggily.

"Any luck big brother?" My sister answered me on the other line. I looked at my watch and it was only 8:30.

"Don't you have anything better to do with your time then call me so early?" I asked laying back on the bed and covering my eyes.

"Alex is my friend too. I want to make sure that she's o.k."

"Alex is fine." I reassured her.

"Now that you're gone, daddy pays more attention to what I'm doing." Aurore sighed on the other end of the phone.

"Not so fun is it." I laughed.

"It makes me sorry that I laughed at you all these years." She said.

"Yeah well, what can we do about it?"

"So what do you have planned for today?"

"Apparently we're all going to this amusement park, a huge group of us."

"That should be fun."

"Yeah, my first weekend here and I get to meet all of her friends. This should be a blast." I said sarcastically.

"Don't be such a downer." Aurore laughed on the other end.

"You're right." I sighed. "Thanks for waking me up. I got some errands to run before I go and pick up Alex."

"Have fun." She said and hung up. I quickly showered and ran around getting things for my new apartment. I made sure my fridge was completely stocked and that I had some silverware and dishes. Around 12:30 I ran to go get Alex and Ryoma.

"Hey." I smiled as Alex, Ryoma and Sakuno came down the walkway towards my car. Alex smiled and waved and I watched her walk all the way to my car.

"So we're meeting everyone at the park in an hour, so I figured we can go and get something to eat." Alex told me.

"Good." I sighed, glad that I didn't stop at that Mcdonald's on my way here. "Cause I'm starved."

"We should just grab some stuff to go cause I'm sure that we'll have stuff at the amusement park too." Ryoma said, climbing in the back with his girlfriend.

"How about some dollar burgers then?" I said.

"Sounds good." Alex smiled. "We can go for a walk in the park to waste time." I shrugged and we headed off towards the park.

"You remember when we used to spend all day in the park?" Alex asked as me and her sat under a large oak in the middle of the huge park.

"Yeah. I used to practice and you would just lay there and listen to me." I remembered those cool summer days like they were yesterday.

"I miss those days." Alex said, laying back and looking up at the sky.

"I do too." I told her honestly. We laid there in silence for a minute or so, just staring at the blue sky and the few clouds that were floating by.

"You know, I've been thinking about entering a few contests while I'm here." I told her, watching her out of the corner of my eyes.

"I would be disappointed in you if you didn't." She smiled and turned towards me. "I can't wait to listen to you play and here how good you've gotten."

"Why don't you play the piano anymore?" I asked seriously. "I could use an accompanist." Ryoma's words instantly exploded in my ears _you're not here to see her reaction every time you say his name. You're not here when she remembers something about that day and freezes up only for an instant._ I watched as she stared at me icily for just that split second and then went back to laying on her back and staring at the sky.

"I just can't." She barely whispered. "You wouldn't understand."

"I know what you're going through." I told her softly.

"No you don't." She said defiantly, sitting up and not looking at me. "You still have your family. I was left here by myself."

"If you would just talk about it," I pushed her.

"Stop." She whispered. I couldn't see her face, but I could feel the pain in her voice and that's what made me stop. "Maybe you really do understand what I'm going through, but it's not going to help me talking about it." All I could do was stare at her, silenced by the pain that she was so obviously trying to keep in.

"I just want to help." I whispered.

"Then don't push this." She told me, finally looking at me. There was such pain in her eyes that I was reminded of the days that followed the crash and how it seemed that Alex was nothing more than an empty shell and once again I heard Ryoma's voice ringing in my ears. Maybe I really was in over my head here.

"Alright." I told her, clearing my voice. "I'm sorry."

"It's alright." She laughed. "You were there with Brian most of the time, I'm sure it's hard to find a common memory with me where he's not there." Even though she laughed, it wasn't really a laugh. It was more of a forced snort.

"True." I shook my head.

"Let's go find Ryoma." She said, getting up and brushing the dirt off her pants.

"Yeah. No doubt we should get to the amusement park soon." I said, checking my watch for the time. We quickly found Ryoma and Sakuno and headed to the amusement park.

Since this was mostly a group date, people started showing up in groups of 2's. I stood off to the side, more or less, until everyone showed up. In total, there were 16 of us. Alex sure had a lot of friends.

"Guys, I want you all to meet my friend Leon. He just transferred here from France. He starts school with us on Monday." I was introduced to everyone, but I couldn't keep them all straight.

"So how did you guys meet?" The redhead asked. In that instant I could already tell that he liked her, maybe even loved her? I opened my mouth to recount our story but Alex beat me to the punch.

"Leon plays the Violin for a profession and I go to see a lot of his concerts." She smiled sweetly at me and I almost couldn't hold in my laugh. So she wasn't telling these guys the whole truth about herself.

"Yeah, well." I said smiling. "I wouldn't be where I am today if you didn't push me so hard in the beginning." Both her and Ryoma started to laugh. Even though I had meant it, it was usually treated at a joke. In the beginning, I was really bigheaded and Alex taught me to love music not to be better then everyone but to show people to the joy that the sound brings to your ears.

"The only person left to wait for is Kunimitsu." Alex said, looking around for him.

"Oh yeah." One of the guys said. "He called me and said he couldn't make it. Said something about some kids coming into the club and getting stuck training them." Alex looked at me and shrugged.

"What do you say we get started?" She smiled at me.

All the boys were paying for the girls so I volunteered to buy Alex's ticket.

"Hey." One the guys tapped me on the shoulder. I was trying to remember his name, but I was doing a horrible job. "It's Eiji. So how far back to do you and Alex go?"

"We go back 4 years, I think?" I remember the exact day that she walked into the practice room and had listened to me play, but he didn't need to know that.

"That's quite a long time." He said, thinking about it. "You guys must be pretty close."

"Yeah." I laughed. "When I was in the States, I lived with her and Ryoma. Well, not so much Ryoma but he was there so often he might as well have lived with the Cross's."

"Well you know that's where all the action was all the time." Ryoma said, turning around to join us. "What fun was my house compared to the Cross's." He laughed.

"True." I said, thinking about all the drama and fun that we used to have.

"So how long have you been playing the Violin?" One guy asked. "It's Shusuke." He added.

"Right. I've been playing for as long as I can remember." I shrugged.

"Must be good to make a profession out of it so young." Another one said.

"I'm alright. Just before I left France I played for the Prime Minister and his family." I said, not trying to brag.

"Wow." They were all staring at me in awe.

"You should've heard him before Alex tuned him up though." Ryoma said, laughing. "He really wouldn't have made it this far." I laughed along with him and glanced at her standing in the group of girls, laughing and giggling.

"Yeah." I said, watching her smile. "She really is something else." Like she could feel my eyes on her, she looked up and we made eye contact. She waved at me like she was embarrassed and went back to talking to the other girls.

"Let's go." Ryoma said hitting my arm and stepping up to the ticket booth. I shook my head and bought tickets right after him and we all headed into the amusement park.

"Should we all stick together and then later on we can go our separate ways or should we just split now?" Alex asked once we were inside the gates.

"Why don't we all stick together now and then we can split after dinner or something?" I suggested. We all seemed to come to an agreement and we started out.

The whole day seemed to go by in 2 hours and before I knew it it was 7:30. No one split from the group and now we were all sitting around eating.

"Do you want to go on the Ferris wheel next?" I asked Alex as we finished our combo platter together.

"Yeah. That sounds fun." She smiled.

"What do you think about the Ferris wheel?" Eiji asked Haruna. "We'll probably be able to see the sun set." I rolled my eyes but was surprised when I saw the look on Alex's face. It was so subtle that I doubted even Ryoma had seen it. She liked this guy. I watched him for a minute, trying to assess him and figured that this was the guy that Ryoma was talking about. She was shutting herself away from him even though it was plain as day that he liked her too.

"What?" Eiji asked when he caught me staring at him.

"Nothing. I was just lost in thought. Didn't mean to stare." I laughed it off and took Alex by the hand. "Are you ready?" Without really waiting for an answer I pulled her to her feet and started leading her towards the Ferris wheel. She came without restraining.

We stood in line, not saying anything and not looking at each other.

"You shouldn't shut yourself down like that." I whispered to her once the wheel started turning.

"Oh here we go." She sighed. "I knew this day was going to good. If you have something you want to say then just say it already."

"If you would talk about the accident then you wouldn't have to shut yourself off to him." I almost shouted.

"We all can't be as strong as you and get over the accident in 2 months." She shouted back.

"That's because I talk about it." I told her. "I think about those memories, the good and the bad. I cry about it and I laugh about it. Is that such a crime?"

"It should be." She shouted back again, tears coming to her eyes but not really spilling over. "Every time I laugh, it's like I can still hear them laughing along with me. When I remember that they aren't here it's like a knife is slowly cutting through my heart and it hurts. Talking about it will never make that pain go away. Ever." She stared at me, daring me to retaliate with something but I couldn't.

"I want to help. That's why I'm here." I told her softly after I stared at her.

"I'm not as strong as you think I am." She told me, staring into the depths of my soul. "I've only managed to make it this far by pushing everything and everyone out. Including Ryoma. You have to understand that I'm doing this for everyone else's sake and not my own. I can't face this because I know that I'll never come back from it."

"You always were selfish." I muttered without thinking. "You're keep telling yourself that you're doing this for everyone else but everyone else would rather see you confront these issues then push them away. You're only kidding yourself here."

"I'm not selfish." She said with gritted teeth and I could just feel all the hatred she had for me. But if she hated me and eventually got over the accident because of it, then so be it.

"Brian always told me that once you got in a state of mind where you were right there was little anyone could do to prove you wrong, but I promise you this much.. You will see that you're wrong and come to my terms."

"Over my dead body." She whispered. The Ferris wheel came to a stop and when our door opened she darted out before I could make a grab at her.

"Alex, wait." I shouted going after her. She was faster then I was and brushed past our group with her head down.

"What did you do?" Ryoma shouted, sprinting after Alex.

"I didn't do anything." I said, trying to catch up to them. When we made it to the gate both Alex and Ryoma had disappeared. I vented my anger by kicking a trash can scaring some kids. She was impossible to deal with.


	17. Smiles and Unhappy Endings

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Prince of Tennis or any characters

**Momo's POV**

Practice on Monday was as harsh as ever and by the time I was done showering up, I was pretty tired. I didn't get much sleep last night because I was thinking about Alex. The last I seen of her on Saturday was her running away from Leon and Ryoma and Ryoma seemed pretty upset at Leon.

"Do you think she's alright?" I asked Kaoru as we walked to the Wall.

"I think she's fine." He shrugged it off. I had to wonder though.

"Hey Kiryu." I waved as soon as we came in sight.

"Hey." He smiled. "Did you guys have fun on Saturday?" I looked at Kaoru and he shrugged.

"You can say so. Yeah." I said, trying hard to not think about what happened.

"What?" Kiryu asked.

"Nothing." I laughed. "You'll see when they get here." I decided I wasn't going to open my mouth, Kiryu was a good guy but he could figure it out himself.

"When 'they' get here?" He asked.

"Yup." I said, not giving him much to go on.

"I have a bad feeling about this." He said under his breath. We all sat around for 5 minutes when I spotted Alex coming in from the front gates. Me, Kaoru, Kiryu and Shusuke waved at her and she waved back half-heartedly.

Before she got to us, she was intercepted by her friend Leon and instantly I could tell that she didn't want to talk to him. He was trying to tell her something but she wasn't listening and just kept walking towards us. He stepped in front of her and she was forced to stop but as she tried to walk around him, he grabbed her by the wrist.

I watched, unable to tear my eyes away as she ripped her arm out of his grip and turned to him. She said something to him and he argued his point until she seemed willing to talk.

"Do you think one of us should go over there?" I whispered. No one answered. They talked some more, Leon more than Alex but it seemed that whatever they're problem was, it got resolved. They both came walking over to the wall, Leon looking relieved.

"Hey guys." Alex smiled. "You guys remember Leon from Saturday." We all waved and said hi.

"Sorry about Saturday." Leon said, looking at all of us. "Alex and I just have some issues that we need to deal with."

"It was late." Shusuke said. "We were all going to call it quits soon anyway." I watched Alex closely as she stood by Kiryu but didn't really say anything.

"So how do you and Alex know each other?" Tezuka asked.

"Oh yeah." Alex said. "You weren't there. Leon stayed at my house when he was in America." She said.

"He plays the violin for a living." Eiji put in sarcastically. I rolled my eyes at him.

"So you and Alex must be pretty close." Kiryu said, watching Alex.

"Well we lived together for 3 years." Leon laughed like it was obvious that they would know each other well but I already knew what was coming by the way that Kiryu was watching Alex but Alex was refusing to look at him.

The bell rang and we all started gathering our stuff up and heading in different directions. Alex sure seemed to be having a lot of problems lately. I shook it off and went to class.

By lunch time I was just about ready to die I was so exhausted. I made my way to the lunch room after I dropped off my books for class when I seen Eiji. He was standing by the window looking out.

"What are you looking at?" I asked as I stood by him. When he didn't answer, I followed his gaze down to where Alex was sitting with Leon and 5 other people. It looked like they were all having a good time, but it was Alex that drew my attention. It was her smile.

In the 2 and ½ months that I had known her, I had never seen her smile like that before. It was so heartwarming, like everything in the world was right and nothing bad could harm her.

All I could do was watch. It was like I was looking through a glass at a reflection of someone I had once known. I watched as she truly laughed with Leon and I'll admit that I was jealous. He made it look so easy, but none of us had been able to do that the entire time that she was here. At the same time as I was jealous, I felt an overwhelming sadness come over me that I didn't really understand.

I thought we were getting closer to knowing about her, but that smile told me that the possibility that we would never really truly know her just got bigger.

"Eiji." I whispered, not looking at him. "We should go." I touched his arm and looked at him and instantly I felt sorry for one of my best friends. The way he watched her, with the look of someone who was having his heart shattered, made my heart feel that same way. It sucked watching my friend go through so much pain and not knowing what to say.

Everything was changing so fast and I couldn't do anything about it. Eiji took one more look at Alex and smiling sadly, he walked away. I wanted to follow him and tell him that everything was going to be alright but I couldn't. I was rooted to my spot watching as Alex and Leon headed off together in the direction of the cafeteria.

"Why can't everything just go back to the way it was before?" I whispered and headed off to the cafeteria.

* * *

**Shusuke's POV **

I watched as Alex came walking in with Leon and was surprised by the smile she wore. It was her same old smile, but there was something different about it. They made their way through the line laughing and talking about who knows what and when they reached our table I couldn't help but to be affected by Alex's happiness and, even though I didn't want to, I smiled.

"Hey guys." Alex said, sitting down. "How was the first half of your day?"

"Good." Oishi said, not taking his eyes off Alex. "How was yours?"

"Good. Hated math though, I think I might need a tutor?"

"No doubt Leon can help you." Kiryu said, sitting down next to Alex. Alex looked at Kiryu confused for a second, but shrugged it off.

"Don't make me laugh. Leon's math skills suck."

"Votre train de me dire." Leon said.

"Je sias." Alex answered and they both busted up laughing. Kiryu slammed his fork down and got up and left.

"Shit." Alex said under her breathe and went after him.

"That can't be good." Oishi said, although it didn't sound like he was too sorry. Leon made to get up but I shook my head.

"Not a good idea man. You should just let them fight it out." They were probably fighting about him anyway. If they had any chance of making up, it wouldn't help if he came to mediate.

"Do you think they'll be alright?" Leon asked, sitting down but looking at the door where they had both disappeared.

"They'll be fine." I said. Or at least I hoped they would be.

The rest of the time, Alex nor Kiryu came back and Eiji was missing the entire time too. Shuichiro went to go look for him half way through and the rest of us just sat around the remainder of the lunch period.

The rest of my day went by without a hiccup and by the time I was done practicing and heading to the wall, I was exhausted.

When I came up on the wall, there was no sign of Kiryu but Alex and Leon were there bent over a book talking quickly and quietly.

"So I think maybe you should play this one and end with this song." I heard her say.

"But I think you're missing the theme." He complained. "I think the one I should start with is good but I should end with this one." He went through some sheets and produced another sheet.

"Trust me. I'm not missing the theme. I know what I'm talking about. That one is all wrong for you."

"Alex knows what she's talking about." I told Leon. "I tend to go with what she thinks." I winked at Alex but she just stuck out her tongue.

"See." She told Leon and picked up the one sheet he was trying to get rid of and waved it in his face.

"So what's going on?" I asked, already guessing what they were going through.

"Leon has a recital coming up and needs help picking out music." She told me.

"Cool. Are you going?" I asked.

"I was invited." She shrugged it off like it wasn't really that important.

"So where's Kiryu?" I asked, wanting to hear it from her if they broke up or not.

"Probably went home." She said, looking down at the ground.

"Probably?" Sadaharu asked.

"Yeah. We broke up after lunch and he stormed off. I didn't see him after that." She wouldn't look at any us now and I felt bad for her. I stared at Leon, but he was too busy watching her to notice that I was watching him.

"I don't think he was actually your type anyway." Leon told her after a while.

"And what would you know about my type?" She asked angrily. I sat back to listen to this one. Was it just me or did these 2 fight an awful lot?

"Please." Leon laughed. "I've known you for 4 years, lived with you for 3 of those years so I think I deserve little credit here."

"No doubt about that one." She said, picking up her bag and heading to the gates without another word. Leon rolled his eyes and headed after her, half jogging to catch up to her.

"Do you think we're in over our heads with her?" I asked Sadaharu after Leon disappeared around the gate.

"There's definitely more to her then we thought." He laughed.

"What do you mean?" I asked now looking at him.

"It seems, that with the arrival of Leon, we're seeing more to her then we would've thought. There's definitely something she's not telling us."

"Maybe we have no right to know." I said, thinking about the infinite secrets that she could have.

"Maybe?" Sadaharu said thoughtfully.

"Tomorrow can't possibly be any better so I'm headed home." I said, sighing. I gathered my stuff up and started off towards my home. I was beginning to think that maybe we were going to see Alex for who she really was sometime in the near future.


	18. Dreams of the Past

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Prince of Tennis or any characters

* * *

**Leon's POV**

_For the 12__th__ time now since I started practicing, I set down my violin and sighed. I just couldn't get the sound right. I walked over the window and opened it, letting in the cool September air and the various other sounds of music. I closed my eyes and breathed in my nose and out my mouth. _

"_Your sound would be better if you didn't stop that half a second before the main strings." A voice said beside me. My eyes flew open and I seen a girl sitting there, a tennis racket sitting next to her. _

"_It would sound a lot better if I could concentrate." I told her, not wanting her to think that I was some mediocre player that didn't know what he was doing. She didn't say anything so I closed my eyes again and tried to re-concentrate. _

"_Your recital last night was pretty good." She said softly. _

"_I didn't know you were so into music." I said a little stung that she just thought i was pretty good. Not opening my eyes, realized who she was. "I would have thought that you were playing in the city tournament yesterday." _

"_I was. We sweeped it, so I thought I would catch the recital." I looked down at her and shrugged. _

"_Is that why you're outside my practice room window?" I asked, smiling. "You heard my sound last night and now you wanted to hear it again?" Of course she wanted to hear me some more. It was only natural when I played that I inspired people. _

"_Don't be so full of yourself." She laughed at me. "Coming here and listening to people play sets me at ease, so I often come here and listen to the different sounds." I watched her as she closed her eyes and the peaceful smile that she had on her face also made me smile too. _

_I listened for a minute to the other people playing and upon closer inspection all I could hear was all the obvious mistakes that people were making. _

"_They sure have a long way to go before they catch up to my level." I scoffed, thinking about my sound. _

"_Music is not all about you." Startled by the way she sounded I looked at her only to meet her icy glare and for a minute I was taken off guard. "Music is not to do about the levels at which you play. It's about the sound you bring to people's ears." She was so serious that I found it hard to laugh at her. _

"_Maybe that's how you view it, but to most people at this school it's a competition." _

"_A competition for what?" She asked. "To impress some old geezers who think they know music?" It was well known that the Principal of the school loved music and was the reason that they even had a music section of the school. _

"_Easy for you to say." And it was. What did she really know about music? Her, her twin sister and her older brother were in the fast lane to becoming tennis experts. Her older brother had made captain his first year coming here and when the 2 girls got here, they were unbeatable. I even heard that 2 of the top schools in the country were already scouting for the brother. _

"_That's what's wrong with your sound." She said, getting up and grabbing her stuff. "Your sound is for you, it's not for other people. When your sound is only for your own gain you will try to improve it to your own tastes and it will never be good enough. But when you want other people to hear you and enjoy the sound, only then will it improve." She gave me one last look and walked off towards the tennis courts._

"_What do you know?" I asked, leaving the window open and going back to my violin. _

_I closed my eyes and played the song through and when I finished the song and reopened my eyes again, there was a burst of applause. _

_I bowed slightly and headed off stage. This was going to be my last Music competition here in the states and Alex hadn't even bothered to come. _

"_That was great." My teacher said, "You did great on those pauses we were working on the other night." I nodded and tried to smile but it was hard. The last contestant won and were awarded for the competition. _

_With my first place trophy, I walked over to my dad and Aurore. _

"_That was magnificent." My dad smiled. _

"_Thanks father." I said. It was my sister who noticed my sadness. _

"_What's wrong?" She asked quietly. _

"_Nothing." I smiled. _

"_You did wonderful." She said again. I had won first place, so why did I feel so rotten about it? _

"_Nice souvenir for your return trip." Said a familiar voice behind me and my heart seemed to lift for a fraction of a second, but upon turning around to look at the face that I had been searching for all night I felt my stomach drop. She didn't look too happy. _

"_You made it." I said, carefully. _

"_I did make it." She said, like she was sorry she came. "And for what? To see another competition." I didn't know why, but I was feeling like I lost. _

"_I tried." I whispered. "But I couldn't." I glanced at my father who was 10 feet away talking to the principal._

"_I know that you're going home in a week, so I just really came by to wish you good luck with your music career." She said sadly. _

"_I was hoping that we can hang out some before I leave." I said, honestly. _

"_I can't." She told me, now not looking at me. "We're really busy practicing for the next round to the nationals. My dad has put in a lot of time to our new training schedule and I'm going to be super busy with practice as it is, so I thought I would just say good-bye now." _

"_Oh. I see." I nodded in understanding but I couldn't think of anything more to say. _

"_Good luck with your music career back in London." She almost whispered and turned away before I could say anything more, my heart in my throat. _

_The sound of the piano was coming from down the hall. Confused, I set my violin down and opened the door to my practice room. No one was usually here at this time. The light was on in the room at the end of the hall so slowly I crept towards it wondering who could be playing like that and why I had never heard till now._

_It was a simple song, one that was usually associated with the piano Fur Elise, and even though I had heard it a million times I had never heard it played this way. _

_It was like the sound itself was touching my soul and I would never hear music the same way again. I could tell by the way the person played that they were at ease playing the piano and that the fingers were lighting tapping each key with care and delicacy. _

"_That was so beautiful." A girl said, longing in her voice. "Will you play my favorite song?"_

"_Yeah." Another voice answered. "But we better get home after this. Don't want dad or Brian thinking we're slacking off." There was laughter and the piano started again. _

_Instantly, my heart began beating faster and I couldn't help but smile. She paused at all the right intervals and she dragged some notes out longer then needed but it seemed that it made the song all the better instead of changing it. _

_I tried to swallow, but there was a lump in my throat and I couldn't. If I could stand here and listen to that sound for the rest of my life, I would've been happy. But when the song came to an end, it seemed all that happiness was drained from me. There was a sigh on the other side of the door that matched my feelings. _

"_How do you do that?" She asked. And without a doubt in my mind I knew who was playing. _

"_How do I do what?" Alex laughed. _

"_Every time I hear you play that song, I feel so happy when you start and it makes me sad when it ends." Alex laughed nervously. _

"_I don't know?" She answered. _

"_One more song." Her sister pleaded. For some reason, I knew that it was them 2 in that room. _

"_C'mon. We have to get back. Dad already knows that I've been slacking." I don't really know why, but I ran back to my practice room before they seen me. _

_I picked up my violin, thinking about the sound that I just heard in her piano playing and starting playing. _

"_Why won't you just listen to me once?" Alex shouted._

"_Because I could care less what you do with your time now that you quit the tennis team." Brian said. I stopped playing. Their fights were becoming more and more heated in these last 2 months. Before, when Alex was trying to juggle both of her hobbies, Brian seemed o.k. with her playing the piano but now that she quit tennis altogether he was on her case more and more. _

"_Would it really kill you to hear just one?" Alex shouted, pleading more than anything. _

"_I don't care what it sounds like. I hate the fact that you play the piano and I will never listen to you." I held my breath for a second until the door slammed and set my violin down. _

"_Are you alright?" I asked, sitting down next to Alex. _

"_Yeah." She said, not looking at me. _

"_He just doesn't understand. But give him a little more time. He'll come around." _

"_No he won't." She said, facing me. I felt so helpless watching her cry. "You heard him just now. He hates it. He will never understand." She turned away from me and started going through some of her sheet music. Tear drops fell on some of the sheets but she made no attempt to wipe them away.  
_

"_It's not so bad." I told her. "At least Alice understands you." _

"_You know when they ask you if you love music so much if you would give up anything for it. I would always answer yes, but now I'm beginning to think that maybe my answer was wrong." _

"_Don't think that way." I said, angry that she even thought that. "It's because of you that I'm a better person today. Don't let Brian change anything about you." For a second she laughed. _

"_It just sucks." She said, smiling so sad that I got a lump in my throat. _

"_I know it does." I said, pulling her into a hug. I counted to 3 and when I pulled away to wish her luck with her recital today, there was strange gleam in her eye. _

"_What?" I asked, afraid of the answer. _

"_Thanks for supporting me this long." She said, smiling. _

"_Today will decide the rest of your life." I told her, proud that in spite of it all she had made it this far. "Good luck out there."_

"_I'm sorry. But I'm not going out there. I have a tennis match to get to." She started away but I grabbed her wrist to stop her. _

"_What are you talking about?" I asked angrily. "This is everything you worked for. You're going to shoot straight for the top. Don't let anyone take this from you." _

"_Me and Alex are going to be the top pro-players in the world and at our games I hope to see you in the stands cheering me on. But I have to go. I've made up my mind and there's nothing you can do to change it back." She yanked out of my grip and she took off running. _

_I punched out at the wall to let out my frustration. She was impossible. All the hard work that she put in to get this far and she was throwing it away. _

_I walked down the hall and came to the dressing room and went in to find Alex at Brian's sleeping side. _

"_You should get some rest." I whispered. _

"_I'm not tired." She whispered, staring at Brian's sleeping form. _

"_This isn't healthy for you." I told her as softly as I could. "You need to eat and then sleep some." _

"_I wish I never would've started the piano." She said, her voice cracking. "If I hadn't, this would've never happened." _

"_Don't be ridiculous." I told her. "You and your dad would've been in that accident too." _

"_Better to go as a family then being left here alone and broken." She cried, silent tears trailing down her face so fast that it was like an infinite source of water was on and was coming out her eyeballs. _

"_Why would you say something like that?" I asked, tears coming to my eyes too but not spilling over. My phone started ringing and I reached into my pocket. _

My eyes flew open and I was staring at my ceiling, my phone going haywire on my dresser. I looked at it and once I saw that it was my dad, I let go to voicemail.

As I got up and got ready to shower I wondered what Alex was doing over the weekend? No harm in asking her when we got to school.


	19. Memories Brought Back to Life

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Prince of Tennis or any characters

* * *

**Alex's POV**

"_Will you please wait for me?" Leon asked, trying to catch up to me. _

"_No." I said walking even faster, just trying to get away from him. _

"_Why are you being like this?" He asked when he was finally able to catch up to me and step in front of me. _

"_What do you know about me and Kiryu?" I shouted. "He broke up with me because of you." Even though it had been fake, I couldn't pretend that it didn't hurt because it did. I felt like I had lost a friend in him and our break-up didn't go quite as well as I was planning. _

"_Because of me?" Leon asked. _

"_Yes. Didn't I just say that or didn't you hear me?"_

"_Why because of me?" Leon asked. _

"_I don't know? Why don't you ask Kiryu tomorrow?" I went to go past him but he made to stop me again. _

"_I'm sorry." He said and he sounded so honest that I stopped in my tracks for a second. "I'm sorry that I came here and ruined everything FAKE that you built up." Now I was mad._

"_FAKE?" I shouted. "You think you know me, but the girl that you knew no longer exists. The girl that you see now is all that's left so I suggest you stop deluding yourself of anything different and get over them facts." _

"_As much as you want this to be you, it's not." Leon said, stepping close to me. "The girl that I know is still in there and every time you decide to smile a little or have some fun I see the old you. Why you want to shut yourself off from the world is beyond me but I'm not going to just stand here and watch you play actor of the year." _

_What did Leon know? He got over the accident with such ease that I actually envied him. I wished, deep down, that it could be that easy for me but he would never understand. _

"_Whatever." I whispered and went past him. This time he didn't bother to try and stop me. _

And of course, a day or so we made up. I hated Leon being around but at the same time I didn't think that I could handle it anymore if he wasn't around. I couldn't stay mad at him for more than a day and we couldn't go a day without fighting either. It was ridiculous.

Not to mention that things were changing at school. Since Monday Eiji was acting real distant, even when I tried to include him in conversations, he would answer the questions directly and that was it. I wished he would quit acting so distant but I couldn't blame him. After all, I was the one that was pushing him away.

I stared at my ceiling some more, thinking about the music competition that was going to be today. I already decided that I was going to go but just to check it out, not to actually compete. There was a knock on my door.

"Are you up?" It was Ryoma.

"Yep." I said, still staring at the ceiling.

"Got any special plans for this weekend?" He asked, leaning in the doorway.

"Not really." I said, sadly. "Since me and Kiryu are done with, I'll probably just ask Akane if she wants to do something with me?"

"I'm sorry to hear about you and Kiryu." Ryoma said.

"Not to worry. Leon says he's not my type." I tried for a laugh, but thinking about Kiryu was making me sad again.

"I don't know why you listen to him all the time." Ryoma said, scoffing.

"Because 99% of the time he's right." I said without thinking. I could feel Ryoma's stare as I continued to look at the ceiling.

"Do you really think that him being here is going to help you?" Ryoma asked after a minute.

"I don't know?" I said honestly. "But you can tell that I am changing right?" In truth, I had been feeling it since he had gotten here too, but I still didn't know if it was for the best or not.

"Yeah." Ryoma said. "You are."

"Is it bad?" I asked, afraid of the answer.

"No. I hate to admit it, but I think he's doing a good job."

"I better get ready for school." I said, swinging my legs over my bed and letting them touch the cold floor.

"Yeah." Ryoma said, closing my door.

It didn't take me long to get ready and when me and Ryoma went our separate ways to school, the competition filled my head once again. I thought about it the entire way to school and when I arrived at the wall I hardly paid any attention to anyone else but instead took out a random book from my bag and started reading it, not really registering what I was reading.

_I finished the song and there was a sigh as I finished. I smiled and wanted to laugh, but kept it in. _

"_Why do you sigh whenever my songs end?" I asked Alice curiously as she sat next to me at the Grand Piano that mom had just bought me last week for my birthday. _

"_Cause it feels like the world will never be the same whenever your songs end." She said wistfully. "I wish you could hear the way you play through my ears." I thought about it and started shuffling through the papers that were littered on top of the piano. _

"_Are you coming to my recital on Thursday?" I asked putting the pen I was using to make corrections on my sheet music with in my mouth and testing that section of the song. _

"_You know I wouldn't miss it for the world." She said. We sat there for a few seconds not saying a thing when Alice opened her mouth. _

"_I'm trying to get Brian to come." She whispered. I stopped trying to fix my song for a millisecond and then brushed her comment off. _

"_Good luck with that." I laughed. _

"_I know that Brian is being difficult with this music business, but can't you at least try to make amends with him. You 2 haven't spoken to each other in almost 2 weeks." _

"_I've tried." I told her putting my pen back in my mouth. "And I know that you don't like my music career anymore then he does, but I've made up my mind." _

"_I don't have a problem with you playing music." She pouted and I had to turn to her and stare at her. "I mean, I don't mind that you play. I just wish that you would play both." She corrected. _

"_I can't play both." I told her. "I have to fully commit to one or the other or else I don't perform as well as I'm capable of." _

"_I know." Alice said quietly. "Will you play my favorite song?" I didn't have to look to see that she was smiling._

"_Yeah." I said, turning to her to stick my tongue out. She scooted close to me and leaned her head on me as I started._

"Earth to Alex." Leon waved his hand in front of the book I was attempting to read.

"What?" I smiled at the memory and halfway closed the book.

"Interesting book?" He asked.

"You could say that." I laughed.

"Considering that you haven't turned a page for that last 10 minutes I'd say you were thinking about something else." He was too good.

"You caught me." I told him. "I can't seem to decide what movie me and Akane should go see this weekend."

"Akane?" He asked.

"Yeah. You know, the girl in my math class."

"Oh, right." He said, thinking back on it. "So do you mind if I tag along?"

"Can't. We made it a girls day thing." I told him, smacking his cheek.

"And you're sure that you can't make any exceptions?" He smiled.

"Not unless you get a sex change and your new name is Alissa." I laughed at that thought.

"Why Alissa?" He asked, thinking about it as the bell rang.

"Don't ask questions."I said with some authority to my voice. "If your name was anything but Alissa then you still wouldn't be invited." I hopped off the wall and started to my class. I was going to have to talk to Akane about Saturday before Leon could get to her. He thought he was so cute that he could get his way all the time.

Which was the annoying part, all the girls were so gaga over him that 90 percent of the time he could.

"Hey Akane." I smiled as I sat down in my seat. "Do you want to hang out on Saturday?"

"Are there any boys involved?" She asked mischievously.

"Sadly not." I laughed at her stricken look. "I need a girls day out. All this hanging out with only boys thing is getting to me."

"Only because it's you, I'll do it."

"Great. Shall we say the plaza at 1?"

"Sounds good." She said as the teacher walked in. It got quiet and he started with a lecture, in which point in time I allowed my thoughts to wander once more.

"_I heard you were great tonight." I didn't need to turn to my door to know that it was Brian. _

"_Yeah. No doubt Alice told you." I was still mad at him because he thought he was always right about everything and everyone and it was either his way or the highway. _

"_Actually mom told me." He whispered. With my back still to him, I started going through some more music trying to decide what I was going to play for the upcoming Christmas concert. "You know, I'm really trying here but you're stretching my limits." _

"_Well someone has to help expand your world a little." I said sarcastically. I knew that the sarcasm wasn't helping but it was the only way I could be with him because I didn't want to fight anymore. _

"_Please help me understand here a little." He said. _

"_Listen to me play and maybe you would have some sort of inkling of why I play." I said defiantly. _

"_Why can't you just tell me?" He shouted. "I'm trying so why don't you meet me halfway?" _

"_Because." I said, getting up and walking to the doorway. "Unless you listen to me you will never understand and this void that is growing between us will only get bigger. I'm not going to argue or fight with you anymore. It's plain and simple. Black and white. Either you listen to me or you don't, it's up to you. But I've done all that I can with you." Brian stared at me for a minute and shook his head. _

"_I don't want to argue anymore either." He said. _

"_Won't you just listen to me once?" I whispered. _

"_I have to get some practice in." He said turning away. "Maybe some other time." _

"_Yeah. Sure." I said, watching him go. I couldn't explain it but it felt like we were never going to be the same. I went back and picked up my music from the floor. This was the only thing that was going to help me through the rest of the night. _

"Hey." Akane nearly shoved me out of my chair. "The bell rang like 5 minutes ago man."

"Oh right." I laughed, shaking my head and getting up. "So Saturday then."

"Yeah. I'll meet you there." We waved to each other and I headed off to lunch, thinking about Music. I went through the line really quick and just grabbed a cup of Kligo Pucchin pudding and a bottle of pop and sat down.

"_I don't understand how you don't want this." Brian said, twirling a racket in his hands. _

"_It's not that I don't want it." I said, sitting in the grass next to him. "It's just that music brings me joy. It's not something I can explain."_

"_Like when you step out on that stage, and nothing else matters except what's right in front of you and the challenge that needs to be met?" He asked. _

"_Yeah. Exactly like that." I said, wary of how he knew that. _

"_I'm sorry that I'm being so stubborn." He sighed and laid back, looking up at the cloudy sky. "It's just, I always thought that the us 3 would play tennis together." _

"_Yeah." I said, thinking about it. "I used to think that same way." _

"_There's nothing like the sound of people cheering for you when you won a game." He smiled blissfully and I had to smile too. "You know that I love you. And if music is what you want, then after the Nationals next week I'll make it to one of your recitals." It felt like my whole world was nothing but sunshine._

"_Really?" I asked, afraid that he was just being mean. _

"_Yeah. Really." I smiled at him and when he looked at me, he busted up laughing and rolled onto his side. _

"_What's so funny?" I pouted. _

"_The look on your face." He said between laughs. I reached forward and punched him and Alice chose that moment to plop down beside me. _

"_Why are we laughing?" She asked lying down and putting her head in my lap. _

"_Alex looked as if Christmas had come early." Brian laughed. _

"_Shut up." I said, a little embarrassed. I reached forward to swat at him again but this time he dodged it and I went forward laughing. _

"_Missed me." He said, also laughing and jumping up. _

"_Take that." I said, throwing a tennis ball at him and hitting him square in the face. I laughed and jumped up too as he threw it back and hit Alice. _

"_That's it." She said, laughing. "Now you're going to pay." _

"_It was Brian who threw it." I said, pointing at him. _

"_No fair." Brian laughed. "Why do I get tag teamed." _

"_Cause we're twins." We both said in unison and Alice threw the ball at him. _

"Alex?" I looked up to see Kiryu's face so close to mine that I could feel his breath on my lips. In surprise, I tried to pull away and ended up falling backwards onto the floor with a yelp.

"Are you alright?" Kiryu asked, helping me up.

"Just a little dizzy." I said, shaking it off. "Did you need something?" I waited for him to say something to me, but he was looking at me like I was crazy.

"Did you really just miss that entire conversation?" Shuichiro asked me.

"Apparently I did because otherwise I wouldn't be asking?" I half laughed, half said.

"Well." Kiryu said, annoyed. "I was just asking if I could talk to you real quick."

"And I asked," Leon said, also standing up. "What could he possibly have left to say that he hasn't already said."

"And then I told him to mind his own business." Kiryu growled.

"And I told him that you were my business." Leon growled back, stepping closer to us.

"And then I asked…" Kiryu started.

"I get the picture." I said stepping in between them so that all they could do was stare at each other.

"Can we talk?" Kiryu asked, not taking his eyes off Leon.

"Yeah." I said softly. "Of course."

"C'mon Alex." Leon scoffed. "What good could possibly come of this?"

"I'll let you know when I come back." I said, gathering up my books that I brought for my next class.

"I don't think this is a good idea." Leon said grabbing my wrist.

"It's a good thing I don't need your approval for everything that I do then." I told him, yanking out of his grip and going with Kiryu.

I took one last look at Leon and shook off the guilty feelings. It really was a good thing that I didn't have to go through him for every choice I made. Something told me that eventually I would've ended up going crazy somewhere down the line.


	20. The Trials of Comptetition

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Prince of Tennis or any characters

* * *

**Alex's POV**

I followed Kiryu and he led us to the tree that we had first sat down on when we had decided to play boyfriend and girlfriend.

"I'm sorry about how we ended things." He said.

"We agreed that we were ending things." I told him. On the inside, I was glad that we were at least fixing the friendship part of our fake relationship.

"I know. I'm just sorry that I yelled at you about your friend Leon." He said, sitting down in the grass. I decided to stay standing. The grass was probably wet and cold in the November air.

"It's alright." I told him. "Leon can be a bit much sometimes."

"It's just that, with my new feelings for you, I got jealous. But the more I see you with him the more I see that I don't really understand." He said all this sadly, which made me wonder what he was talking about.

"Understand what?" I had to ask.

"Understand you." He said, looking at me so seriously that I couldn't really think of anything to say. "You act different around him. More happy I guess, you smile a lot more. And not just any smile, you truly smile with him and he makes you laugh so easy." I hadn't realized that all of that was so obvious.

"That's just because he's known me so long and not to mention that he lived with me for a while." I said, trying to make him understand my relationship with Leon.

"Maybe for you, that's how it is." Kiryu said, shrugging off all my tries at trying to make him understand.

"What do you mean maybe for me?"

"Are you really that clueless that you don't see his love for you as more than a friend?" Kiryu asked.

"There's something that you don't understand." I said, finally coming to what he was talking about. Leon had loved Alice probably like he will never love anyone else and us being twins he probably sees her in me all the time. Leon couldn't possible love me the way that Kiryu was suggesting.

"I'm begging you." Kiryu said with such longing that all I could do was stare at him. "Please. Help me understand. Every time I see you with him it gets hard to breathe and it feels like someone has punched a hole where my heart should be. I just want to understand you." I watched him as he said all this and I felt the guilt just eating away at me.

"I can't." I whispered. "No one will understand."

"But Leon does." He said standing up and walking to me. "It's not fair that he gets to know all about you and he's not even the one that holds your heart."

"The only reason he knows is because he was there when it happened." I told Kiryu, looking into his eyes and trying with all I had in me to make him understand. "He knows and I hate that fact. I hate it so much that we fight all the time. But he was there and he knows and I can't do anything to change that fact, no matter what I wish." Kiryu leaned against the tree and sighed a deep sigh that made me think that the weight of the world was on his shoulders.

"As long as he doesn't hold your heart, I'm o.k." Kiryu said turning and smiling sadly at me.

"I'm sorry that I can't give it you." I said hugging him and resting my head on his shoulder. I felt like crying, but I sucked it up and trying to be strong.

"It's alright." He said, hugging me back and holding me with strong arms. I pulled away from him and blinked the tears away.

"So our friendship is alright?" I asked as the bell rang and we started heading inside.

"Yeah. If I can't have your heart then at least I get the joy of still seeing you every day." He smiled at me sadly again and turned to go to class. I felt happy that we were friends again but at the same time I felt an overwhelming sadness that he loved me so much and I couldn't do a thing about it. I shook my head and went to class.

In class, the teacher assigned us some reading and we started reading quietly.

"_You know your being difficult with Brian, right?" Me and Alice were lying out on the porch of our cabin and looking up at the stars. I was leaning against one railing and she had her head in my lap as I played with her hairs. _

"_I'm not the only one being difficult."I told her. "Why is everyone taking Brian's side?" _

"_I'm not taking sides." She said. "I talked to Brian the other night about this stuff too. Don't you 2 see what this is doing to everyone else around you?" _

"_It only concerns me and Brian." I said. Now Alice shot up. _

"_Are you serious?" She almost shouted. "You really don't see at school that our friends picking sides and getting dragged into the middle of this?" I thought about it for a second and then I felt extremely stupid. Just this morning we played tug-o-war with Jake. _

"_Guess it is pretty dumb huh." I said, not wanting to look at her now. _

"_You and Brian have a special relationship. You 2 can't function right without each other." She laughed at the end. _

"_What are you talking about?" I asked, not laughing with her. _

"_You 2 are so close that this fight is taking out the worst in you 2." She said. "Everyone else on the outside see's it. In truth, I've always been jealous of you 2's relationship." I looked at her now but she continued to stare at the stars. _

"_Why would you be jealous of us?" I asked. _

"_Because you 2 are so close. Sometimes I wonder if you 2 should've been the twins." She laughed sadly. I thought about it and, once again, I felt stupid that I hadn't seen this before. Now I didn't know what to say to make Alice feel any better. _

"_Don't worry about it." She said, smiling at me. "I've gotten over it a long time ago. But you and Brian really should fix it." I looked up at the night sky and smiled. She was right. _

"_I'll try to fix it tomorrow." I said and closed my eyes._

_When I opened them again, there were so many people here to see me tonight that my palms starting sweating. I swallowed twice, trying to clear my throat but it didn't seem to work. Leon was over talking to my dad and as he was walking towards me I found myself thinking about Brian and Alice at the Nationals and wondering how they were doing. _

_Leon wrapped me in a hug and in that instant I knew where I truly wanted to be. Leon pulled away from me and instantly I could tell that he knew I was up to something. _

"_What?" He asked. I smiled at him sadly. This was probably going to be the hardest on him. _

"_Thank you for supporting me this long." I said._

"_Today will decide the rest of your life." He said. "Good luck out there."_

"_I'm sorry. But I'm not going out there. I have a tennis match to get to." I said, trying to run away from him before his anger got the best of him. But to no avail because he caught me by the wrist before I could get too far from him._

"_What are you talking about?" He asked the anger evident in his voice. "This is everything you worked for. You're going to shoot straight for the top. Don't let anyone take this from you." And he was right but I was looking at it in a different light now. Brian had finally given me everything I had been looking for from him and now that I had his blessing, it felt wrong not playing tennis. All the years that we played together, I just wanted to know that it was alright with him if I didn't play tennis. Now that it was, it was all I wanted to do. There was nothing left to stop us from becoming the top players in the world. _

"_Me and Alice are going to be the top pro-players in the world and at our games I hope to see you in the stands cheering me on. But I have to go. I've made up my mind and there's nothing you can do to change it back." I pulled out of his grip and ran for my dad. He would get me there on time. It wasn't too late. _

"Earth to Alex." Kinta waved his hand in front of my face. "The last bell just rang." Hearing that my heart jumped into overdrive and I got up and headed to my locker. I threw books and papers into my back pack at random and headed for the front gate.

"Where's the fire?" Kiryu asked me as I ran to the wall.

"If anyone asks, tell them I left early. I'll see you on Monday." I waved and ran through the front gate and to the train station. It took me 45 mins. to get to the Wasabe Music Hall. When I finally got there, I stood out front just staring at the door. It felt like my legs were jelly and wouldn't move.

"If you're not going to go in then why don't you move?" A rude voice said behind me. I turned around to see a small girl carrying a violin case standing behind me. "Some of us have to warm up before the competition starts." I stepped aside and she walked passed me all in a huff.

I followed her inside and she went straight for the sign in table. They gave her a number that went on her arm and she stalked off towards what could only be backstage. I sighed and was going to head into the auditorium when I seen the clerk that invited me by the sign up stand. I waved and she said something to her friend and came over to me.

"I'm so glad that you made it." She smiled and hugged me. "Did you sign in already?"

"I can't compete." I told her quickly, thinking on my feet. "We're going out of town today and I just stopped in to see how it was going to progress." The disappointment on her face was obvious and I instantly felt bad.

"Well I'll tell you what." She said and I could already tell that she was thinking just as fast as I was. "I have a very old friend who is very interested in hearing you play. Why don't you play one song at the end of the night?" Everything in me screamed no but I the ache in my heart was greater.

"Just one song." I said and as soon as the words left my mouth, my heart felt so light and free just like old times.

"Great." She smiled. "You can head back stage and watch from back there. If you need anything, just let me know." I nodded and headed the way that the first girl went and found myself going down a long corridor. I looked in each room as I passed by and saw many different people playing different instruments. A lot of the kids had teachers that were listening and correcting them. I stood for a minute and watched the girl that had been rude to me and even though I couldn't hear her sound, I could already tell that she was good. It was the way that she held herself and her instrument and the way she looked when she played. I could already tell that she had passion for music and it made me smile.

I walked until I came behind the stage and I looked out. Already there were tons of people filling up the place and the judges were already sitting in their seats talking among themselves.

"I don't even know why you bother coming to the events. You'll only come in 2nd place behind me again." I recognized the rude girls voice right away and I turned to see who she was talking to. It turned out to be a shy girl holding a flute.

"I come because I love music and it's not about what place you come in." She said in a small voice looking at the ground.

"And that's the attitude that get's you 2nd place." Said the rude girl, she laughed and 2 other girls laughed with her. One was tall and butchy holding a clarinet and the other was quite a bit smaller also holding a flute.

"As long as people hear the sound of music.." The shy girl said, trying to get her point across.

"What?" The rude girl said again. "Then you'll be happy?"

"The last time I checked, that's why most people start." I said, coming away from the stage. The rude girl looked at me and sized me up.

"I don't see a number on your arm." She sneered.

"I'm not here to compete. I was invited." I told her nicely.

"Then shouldn't you sit out in the audience?" She asked. I stared at her for a minute and I could tell that she was nervous.

"Why don't you just leave her alone?" I asked, smiling. "Or is your sound so bad that you need to rag on hers to make up for what's lost in yours?" Both girls and the shy girl gasped.

"You wouldn't know the first thing about sounds." She growled. "And just to let you know, I had one of the top teachers in the country train me and there is nothing wrong with my sound."

"You can train a dog to do fancy tricks but if the dog is inept, then it can only go so far in the dog show." I shrugged like it was no big deal and I could tell that she was fuming.

"You listen here…" She snarled but was stopped when whispering broke out in the crowd. Curious, we all went to go see what all the commotion was about. Coming down the aisle was the oldest man I had ever seen in my life. He had to be 90, at the least.

"Oh my gosh." The rude girl said and I looked at her only to see the last of the color drain out of her face.

"What?" I asked as the old man was helped to sit at the very end of the judges table by 2 guys. He greeted the clerk women and shook hands with the rest of the judges panel.

"That's Hashimoto Sensei." She breathed. "Only the best pianist in the whole of Japan. He was rated number 3 in the world." Something in my memory was stirring about my recital but the more I tried to remember, the more it seemed to slip away.

"Places." A teacher whispered and everyone quieted down.

"Are you nervous?" I asked the shy girl. We were both peeking out at the old man sitting at the end.

"I wonder why he's here?" She asked, ignoring my question. "What would bring him to such a low standing music competition?" I looked around for Rude Girl and saw her talking to her teacher. I wonder how nervous she was but I shrugged it off.

In total, there were 15 students involved and Rude Girl was going 2nd to last. Shy Girl was going 3rd and I was curious to hear what she sounded like.

"Up next is Akari Sakamoto." There was clapping and she made her way onto the stage with her flute in hand and her high heeled shoe's clacking as she made her way. The theme of the contest for today was an end but also a beginning. I thought it was kinda hard, but as I listened to Shy Girl play the flute her talent washed over me and I couldn't help but smile. When she ended, I clapped.

"That was amazing." I told her as she came off the stage, her face beet red.

"It was alright." She said in a small voice.

"Are you kidding me?" I asked. "That was just fine." She ended up getting 3 7's and a 6. I thought they should've gave her a better score, but that was just me.

It didn't seem long for me, but Rude Girl was up.

"Watch and learn." She sneered at me as she walked by. I watched as took her stance just like Leon. They were both so professional as soon as they stepped onto the stage, it was amazing.

The song she was playing started off slow and gradually got stronger and I hated to admit it but she was really good. It was just that there was something missing. Like food that was cooked to perfection, but once you added just the right amount of salt it added a flavor that you couldn't really explain.

When she was done, there was a burst of applause and she smiled so brightly that I had to wonder how she could be so rude and mean and still look like that. I shrugged it off as she got 4 8's and a 9.

"And that's how you play." She said, skipping by us. Shy Girl didn't look to happy about the score.

"You know what your problem is?" I asked, putting my thumb on why she was good but not great. She didn't look at me but just stared out at all the people watching and the last person went up with a trumpet. "You need to play with confidence. I think once you master that, you'll be unstoppable."

"How would you know?" She asked in a huff and I realized that I may have come off a little too harsh on her.

"Because I was once told that confidence was key to these kinds of things. It just makes everything different." I remember when I first started out and how awkward it was.

"And now for a special treat, we saved the best for last with a one time performance for you." She had hesitated and I realized that no one here knew my name. I sucked in a deep breath and shook off my nerves and walked to the piano. It was all tuned and ready to go, so all I needed to do was start.

I closed my eyes and thought about the theme and started a 5 minute exert from Moonlight Sonata. It was my favorite part of the piece and I smiled at all the memories that came along with it. I remembered that I was going to play this at my recital that night too. I thought about that night when I had decided to play tennis for a living instead of music and how that was the end of my music career and would've been the beginning to my career as a pro tennis player. I began to think about all the things that I had lost that week, and I let a single tear slide down my face.

Mom, Brian and Alice deserved at least one tear right?

The last 15 seconds of the song were soft and when I ended, I let out a sigh of relief and closed my eyes. It took me a minute to look up but when I did I was surprised at what I found. 4 out of the 5 judges were crying and the last one was very close to tears. The old man stood up, with some difficulty, and started clapping and was followed by the rest of the crowd.

I don't know what it was but my skin started to tingle. It was like, even though there were plenty of people watching me, there was someone else who was watching me. Someone I knew who was there but I couldn't quite see them and thinking about it, it gave me such warmth and assurance that I couldn't help but to smile.

I bowed and walked off stage feeling like nothing could ruin this moment for me.


	21. Changing the World One Person at a Time

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Prince of Tennis or any characters.

* * *

**Akari's POV**

I sat there staring at my music with my flute in my hands. As I closed my eyes, I could hear Alex's sound in the background of my mind playing like a lost melody. Even thinking about her sound it brought fresh tears to my eyes.

"Hey little sister." My brother said, coming and bumping me.

"Hey." I said, my voice cracking a little.

"What's the matter?" He asked, concerned.

"Just thinking."I told him looking down at my sheet music.

"About what? You haven't played a note since you sat down over an hour ago." I could hear the concern that was lining his voice.

"It's nothing." I tried to reassure him quickly.

"There isn't a boy involved, is there?" He asked darkly.

"I just told you not to worry about it." I laughed. "There's no boy involved." I told him, laughing at the look on his face.

"Do you remember the girl that played at the end?" I asked, still staring uselessly at my sheet music.

"Yeah." He said with a faraway look in his eyes. "Why do you ask?"

"What did you think?" I watched his reaction and it seemed to change in some way.

"It was beautiful." He said, shrugging if off.

"This is very important to me right now." I told him, not breaking the stare down. "How did it make you feel?"

"It made me feel sad." He admitted after a moment's hesitation. "Like I should've apologized to dad for our fight the other night because if I didn't, something bad was going to happen and I would regret it. I didn't know that music could make you feel that way."

I went back to looking at my sheet music again. I'll admit that I had been angry when she had talked to me about confidence. I thought she was exactly like Ishi because she thought she was so much better than everyone else but in actuality I had never heard anything like it before either.

It was odd because I could remember when I was younger my mom making me go to ballet lessons and I had quit cause I didn't like it. I was kind of sad that I had quit and not really given it a chance and I started thinking about what would've happened if I stuck to ballet? But then, maybe a little less than halfway through, my feelings changed and I was so happy that I picked music that it drowned out the ballet and all I could think about was how I could make myself better. Almost like that was all that mattered to me in those short minutes.

Then when she was finished, she had come to me and hugged me like we were the best of friends. I had to wonder if there was something wrong with her mentally. And to make matters worse one of the judges, Kimiko Nakamura had came to find her after the show was done and said that Hashimoto sensei wanted to meet her and she dragged me with her.

"That was the most beautiful piece I have ever heard in my life." He said, smiling at her. Her face turned red and she thanked him.

"It's my favorite piece." She told him.

"I have had a lot of students in my years of teaching and only 1 other student has been able to make me move with music the way you have tonight. And let me tell you that it had taken him many years to accomplish that task." He said with a weird gleam in his eye.

"I just love playing." She said, smiling sadly. "It doesn't matter my standing in a competition. As long as people come to love music somewhere down the line."

"Well said my dear, well said indeed."

"This is my friend Akari Sakamoto." She said and instantly attention was turned on me and I could feel my face grow hot.

"Hi." I smiled and bowed.

"You have a very unique sound my dear." Hashimoto sensei said, smiling at me.

"Yes, but the judges didn't seem to think so." I said sadly.

"Oh pish posh." Hashimoto said. "What do judges really know? It's not them up there playing, it's not them putting in the long grueling hours, it's not them fixing their mistakes. That's what I hate about competitions, they make you feel like your sound isn't good enough when you don't come in first place." All I could do was stare at this old man as he got worked up over this.

"You listen to me and you listen good." He said, switching his gaze from me to Alex. "Don't you ever let your passion for music go just because these judges don't give you first place." I nodded and so did Alex.

"Thank you sir." We both bowed and I blinked away some tears quickly. Alex was right about my lack of confidence and I quietly vowed that I would work on it the minute I got home.

"Now, down to business." He said, clearing his throat. "Miss Cross."

"How did you know my name?" Alex asked before he could get anywhere.

"I do believe that I was in attendance at a scheduled recital a year or 2 ago that you never made it to. I had a feeling that I would run into you some time or another." He said with a wink. "Now if you would be so kind as to agree on coming to the Hashimoto School for Gifted Musicians on Monday and talking to the principal, I would like you to start asap."

"I can't." Alex said in a small voice.

"Excuse me?" Hashimoto said and I think he genuinely didn't hear her because I sure as heck didn't, even though I was standing next to her.

"I'm so sorry." Alex said, "But I can't." This time she said it with such finality that I felt that sudden feeling like I was free falling through the air and my stomach was left some 20 yards behind me.

"And why, may I ask not?" Hashimoto asked kindly.

"Do you have any idea how honorable it is to be asked personally by him?" One of his assistants asked. "Many people would give their right foot for an opportunity like this one and you're just brushing him off like it doesn't matter?"

"Enough Sasaki." Hashimoto said and the boy instantly fell silent, although he was still fuming. "Now, an explanation, if you please."

"I only agreed on this one piece. But I don't play anymore." Alex said. I looked at Hashimoto and the look on his face was one of someone who was watching something painful but didn't have the strength to look away.

"And why don't you play anymore?" He asked after what seemed like hours.

"I just don't." She said.

"That is a shame." Hashimoto said looking down at the floor.

"But I believe if you give Akari the chance to be trained, she won't let you down." I felt my face go hot again and I was just about to say something to Alex about opening her mouth where it didn't belong when the other guy that came with Hashimoto stepped forward.

"Yamaguchi sensei needs one more student. She would be perfect. We heard her sound already so it would save on having another audition in such a short period of time."

"If it's alright with her parents." Hashimoto said. "It would be an honor. Get her information down and we'll send you a letter by Tuesday." My heart was beating so loud that I was sure that everyone in the area could hear it.

"I don't think I can afford your school." I told him looking at my feet. It had been my dream when I started out playing the flute to attend that music school, but when I had looked up all the prices and such I had lost almost all hope. "I've already done all the research and stuff. My parents would never be able to afford it."

"Are you serious about your play?" He asked.

"Yes." I said without hesitation.

"Are you willing to put in the extra hours to prefect what's needed to be perfected?"

"Of course." I answered quickly.

"Then I think we can make an exception." He smiled and it felt as if my heart was going to sore right out of my chest.

"Thank you sir." I said, bowing.

"It is an honor." Hashimoto said.

"Sasaki, give Alex my personal card." Hashimoto asked. The one on the left handed her a card grudgingly. "If ever you change your mind, don't hesitate to call that number. Only a select few have that number and it will always reach me, day or night." I looked at Alex and she looked so happy that I had to wonder for the thousandth time why she wasn't play.

"Thank you." She said, also bowing.

"I am late for a prior engagement. But I am so happy that I came. Come Sasaki, Endo." And with that, Hashimoto sensei started leaving. It took me minutes after he disappeared to actually come to terms with what just happened.

"Are you out of your mind?" I whispered at Alex as soon as I found my voice.

"Is it bad if more than one person asks me that in a span of 2 days?" She asked. By the look on her face, I didn't know if she was pulling my leg or if she was serious.

"Do you just realize that you turned down a once in lifetime opportunity right there? Hashimoto just asked you personally to join his music school."

"I know." Alex laughed. "It was all so much to take in." I could feel my anger boiling in me, like she was making fun of me in some way.

"What is wrong with you?" I almost shouted. "You have to most beautiful sound in the world and you say you don't play but it's plain as day to me that you that you would love nothing more than to play all the time."

"You're wrong." She said sadly."There's one thing that I would like more then to play the piano and unfortunately it's not something that I will ever get back."" I was taken aback for a minute, like I had stepped over some important line that wasn't supposed to be stepped across.

I continued to stare at her, the pain on her face so evident that somewhere I felt that it was my fault for even bringing it up. I opened my mouth to say I was sorry but the wind was knocked out of me by my brother.

"That was amazing." He said twirling me around in a huge circle.

"Thanks." I said, the ever-present hotness returning to my face. "Toya, this is Alex."My brothers eyes widened like he was meeting a celebrity and he stopped twirling me instantly.

"That was amazing." He said in awe.

"Thank you." Alex said, tucking some loose hairs back behind her ear. "I really wish I could've competed but I'm going out of town tomorrow so I won't be able to." I watched closely as my brother observed her movements like he was trying to save each one in his internal memory.

The thought made me laugh now and I was aware that my brother was watching me now.

"You know." He said leaning back on both of his arms. "I think your beginning to change."

"Change?" I asked, stretching out my legs around my music sheets. "How do you mean?"

"Well for one I have never seen you lose your cool like you did with Ishi. You finally told her to shove it where the sun don't shine. You should've seen her face after we walked away. Priceless." I laughed along with him.

"I didn't mean to. Alex said that I should be more confident. I was confident that it no longer matter's what she thinks of me and that I need to play for other people and not myself."

"You figured all that out in 2 hours?" My bother asked, astounded and I found myself laughing again.

"Well I have to start somewhere if I'm going to go to Music School next semester."

"That is so great." He smiled. "I'm so proud of you right now."

"Thanks." I said, turning red again.

"I mean it. This school thing is a big deal."

"I know." I breathed. "Which is why I need to find my sound."

"Your sound?" He asked confused.

"Yeah. You know, make people feel the way that Alex did when she played." I stared down at my sheet music, not sure if he was going to understand what I was talking about.

"I'm sure you'll find it." He said reassuringly. "Why don't you just talk to Alex about it?"

"I don't know anything about her. I don't know where she goes to school, who her parents are. Nothing." I was kind of sad that I didn't get the chance to get her information down so that I could talk to her but that was life, I guess.

"Well good luck tomorrow. I might be late, but I'll be there." I shook my head and closed my eyes, bringing the flute to my mouth and sucking in a deep breath. I counted to 5 thinking about Alex's sound and I started the piece with a smile on my face.

* * *

**A/N: Forgot on the last chapter but Fur Elise and Moonlight Sonata are also on lockdown 42's channel just in case you wanted to listen to listen to them =)**


	22. Melodies and Unspoken Words

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Prince of Tennis or any characters

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**Alex's POV**

I sat there twirling the card with Hashimoto's information on it and thinking back on the whole thing. I wondered how Shy girl was going to do in today's part of competition and I was tempted to go but I had to meet up with Akane. Looking at the card again I felt a small flutter in my heart and I couldn't help the smile that busted out on my face.

"You've been awfully happy since yesterday." Ryoma said, standing in my doorway in his pajamas. Even though he had caught me I still couldn't get the smile off my face.

"Just thinking about stuff." I admitted tossing the card aside and rolling out of bed. He laughed and I knew he was going to ask questions but I didn't know if I wanted him know that I was seriously thinking about taking up piano again just yet.

"I hope you have fun with Akane." He said waving it off and heading down the hall. I sat there in silence for second, stunned that he wasn't asking me questions but then I shook it off.

If I didn't get to the train station to catch the next train I was going to be late for sure. It didn't take me long to get to our regular meeting spot.

I waited at the bell tower for Akane, checking my watch even though the time was displayed on the tower.

I blew into my hands even though they weren't that cold, just for something to do and just then my phone rang.

"Hello." I answered.

"Alex. I'm sorry but I can't make it today." Akane's voice said on the other end.

"It's alright." I told her.

"I'm sorry, I'll see you on Monday." And she hung up the phone. Wasn't she in a hurry?

"Now what?" I said under my breath. I shook my head and started in the general direction of the train station trying to think about what I was going to do. My thoughts went to the music competition but I decided not to go. It would be bad if I told everyone I was going out of town and then showed up anyway.

I was walking down Main when I stopped for no apparent reason and looked at the stores around me. Across the street there was a music store and I felt a tingle in my fingers. I stared at the store, wanting to go in but not at the same time.

Finally I made up my mind and crossed the street. There was a small jingle from a bell above the door as I went in.

"Hello dear." An old man, who had to be in his 80's, greeted me. "And how may I help you today?"

"I'm just here to browse," I told him smiling. Wasn't he a sweet old man.

"Tell me if you need anything." He said, going through some sheet music behind the counter.

I went to the wall and checked on some sheet music. There wasn't anything in particular that I was looking for so I just grabbed at random sheet's and looked through them, recognizing some and others that I didn't, I would close my eyes and imagine the sound as if I was playing.

I walked around to the back of the store and when I got to the piano section I let my fingers brush a grand and I felt that familiar flutter in my heart and allowed a smile.

I closed my eyes and examined it. The wood was so smooth, and the keys felt like my fingers would slide from each note with no problem.

"This one was just tuned yesterday." The old guy said, showing up out of nowhere. My eyes flew open and I stared at him. "Why don't you play a few notes and tell me what you think."

"I.. I don't play." I stuttered.

"I may be old, but there are certain things that I have noticed about piano players over the years that just comes with playing." He said smiling like he knew something that even I didn't know.

"It's been a long time since I played." I told him, backing away from the piano and ignoring the pain it caused me internally to do.

"The thing about us piano players is that it's not something we forget." I looked at him and strangely his eyes twinkled like he was 50 years younger.

"I don't think.."

"Sshh." He shushed me softly. I instantly stopped talking and listened for whatever he wanted me to hear. "Don't think. Just listen to your heart." He whispered. I sighed and closed my eyes again. I took in a deep breath smelling the sweet smell of new piano and I sat down on the bench and let my fingers graze the keys, remembering times that seemed so long ago.

I started to play a sad song called November, it was Alice's favorite song. I closed my eyes and it was like I was back at our house in the states.

"_What is this piece called?" Alice asked me, sitting at the piano next to me._

"_November." I told her smiling at the look on her face. _

"_This one is my favorite." She leaned her head on my shoulder and I continued to play while Alice just listened. _

"_That was so beautiful." She sighed, when the song came to an end. _

"_This is my closing piece to my recital on Saturday." I told her. _

"_I'm sorry I can't be there with you." She said, still leaning on me. "But every time you play this song, remember that I am there in spirit, listening." _

"_I'll be sure to remember that." I said, laughing and rearranging my sheet music so that I could play the next piece. _

"_You know, you and Leon should enter that duet contest." Alice said. I missed a few notes and stopped entirely. _

"_What?" I asked. "Me? Duet with a violin?" I laughed. _

"_You and Leon both have that same amazing, rare talent where people feel what you feel when you play. Like November. I've heard that song played before and the only time I feel this overwhelming sadness is when you play." _

"_I don't know about doing a duet with Leon though?" I told her, thinking about it. "He always wants to run the pace and he thinks he's better than me." _

"_2 geniuses under the same roof and fireworks are bound to go off." She laughed. I also laughed and started to play the next song, Alice just leaning on me and listening. _

"_Remember that I'm always here listening to you in spirit." She whispered in my ear. _

When I opened my eyes, it was the last note of the entire song and it was left resounding throughout the entire store. It was almost like Alice was just here and whispered that directly into my ear just now and that thought made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. The note finally ended and I just sat there, staring into nothingness.

"That was beautiful." The old man whispered. I smiled and shut the cover of the piano.

"She plays like a world class piano should." I told him, looking at him now.

"What's the name of that song?"

"November. It was my sister's favorite song before she passed." I told him without really thinking about it.

"That must be why it's so sad." He said, like it had confirmed what he was going to ask next.

"Yeah." I half laughed half scoffed. Here I was talking to a complete stranger about something that I couldn't even talk to my friends about. I was pathetic.

"Do you mind playing another one for me?" He whispered, like I was going to yell at him and run from the store.

"Of course." I smiled lifting the cover from the piano and testing a scale. I thought about another song that was also sad and made me think of my mother.

With her beautiful smile in my mind, I started the song and once again it was like nothing had ever changed in my life and I was back in my house.

"_Alex darling, why don't you play my favorite song since we have all heard Alice's favorite song a hundred and one times." We all laughed as Alice pouted. Brian was the only one missing, it was always him. _

_Alice immediately came and joined me on the piano as I started and my mom and dad cuddled on the couch. _

"_That song always reminds me of how much I love your father." My mom said, kissing him lightly on the cheek. I smiled at them from behind the piano. They really were the perfect couple and I couldn't wait to find someone that loved me they way my dad loved my mother. _

"That was superb." The old man said.

"Thank you." I said closing the lid again. "I really have to go though."

"Don't be shy and please come again." He said, waving at me. I nodded and waved and left, the small bell dinging above me on my way out.

"I thought you were out with Akane?" Nanjiro said as I walked in the door and hour and half later.

"I don't feel too good." I lied, not looking at him but keeping my head down. "I'm going to go lay down." Nanjiro didn't try to stop me and when I got in my bedroom, I locked the door and finally allowed the memories that I was pushing to the back of my mind come out.

_It was only a week after the accident and I was sitting at the piano. Dad was out again and the whole house seemed unnaturally quiet, like something was trying to reminding me of what I had lost. I started playing my mothers favorite song when my father stumbled in the front door obviously intoxicated. _

"_Why are you playing that song?" He asked me darkly. Tears filled my eyes at his obvious anger that was directed towards me. _

"_It was her favorite song." I choked out. _

"_Don't ever play that song again." He growled. _

"_I have every right to play that song." I cried and without any warning, he lunged at me. _

"_This is your fault." He screamed, striking me across the face. "If you would've just played tennis like it was supposed to be, none of this would've happened." I tried to get away from him but he had a firm grip on me and I felt another blow to the side of my head which jarred my senses a little bit. _

"_Why did you even start the piano?" He yelled at me some more and I felt another blow to my ribs. Instinctively I lowered my arms to cover my ribs but that did nothing as I felt another blow to my jaw. I tried to cry out, anything to make him stop but there was nothing I could do. _

_When it finally ended, I felt sore everywhere and wet sticky goo was pouring out of my mouth like I was drooling and I couldn't stop it. _

"_Don't ever play that song again." My dad whispered. I let out a sob and cried there on the floor. I was aware of footsteps leading away and a faint slam as a door slammed in the distance. _

_Of course this went on for 5 months. I didn't tell anyone, believing that my dad would one day come to his senses and we could get over the accident together the way we were supposed to. But he never did and when he came home drunk, I would try to hide. On occasions, it would work and I would just stay hidden until I was sure he was asleep. And other times, when it didn't work, I would scratch that hiding spot off my list. _

_It was Nanjiro and Ryoma who had eventually found out what was going on and had come to my rescue. It was on a rainy night in August when I seen the lights of his car wash over the front room. Everything in me told me to hide, so without really thinking, I ran and hid in the cupboard that I had cleared out just for this purpose. I began to count the seconds, which began to feel like hours, when the front door slammed open. _

"_Come out come out where ever you are." My dad cat called to me. "I know you're in here my beautiful daughter." I was tempted to open the door and peak but I knew that would give me away so I hugged my legs and waited for it all to be over._

_There was a bunch of clatter and then the sound of shattering glass and my dad let out a shout of fury which set shivers down my spine. If he found me, no doubt this would be worse than anything that had come before. _

"_Please come out." My dad begged. For a second I was tempted to come out because of the longing that was in his voice but then there was more clatter and more glass shattering so I stayed where I was. _

"_I know your there." My dad shouted. And all my fears came to be when the door flew open and my dad grabbed me by hair. "How long did you think you could hide from me?" He asked, whipping me on the floor. _

"_No dad. Don't." I screamed. I kicked out and tried to get out of his death grip but it was no use. _

"_Think you can hide from me?" He asked. He brought me up on my feet and backhanded me so hard that I fell up against the wall. Before he could get another good hit in, I dropped like a sack of potatoes and there was a loud crunching sound right above my head. _

"_If you're so sorry, then why don't you take your punishment accordingly?" He asked, hauling me to my feet and striking me across the face again. _

"_Please." I cried. "Stop." _

"_I'll stop when your mother, brother and sister come back." He shouted in my face. He tried to strike at me again but I sunk to the floor and tried to crawl away. "Oh no you don't." He grabbed at my feet but I kicked and was able to get away. _

_I felt his strong arms around my waist and I screamed as I was lifted off the ground and thrown across the room. There was an explosion of pain in the right side of my arm and I screamed out, not being able to hold it in anymore. I closed my eyes and prayed that it would all be over soon. _

_There was some more shouting and I was aware that someone was coming towards me. I closed my eyes even tighter and I pulled my legs closer to me cradling my right arm. _

"_Alex." I heard my name whispered softly. _

"_No." Was all I could cry. "Don't hurt me." I felt hands touch my left arm and I couldn't help flinching. _

"_Alex. It's alright now." I opened my eyes to see chocolate brown ones staring into mine with sympathy and concern._

"_Ryoma?" I cried as his arms went around me and I instantly felt like the world was going to be o.k. I looked around to see where my dad was and I seen Nanjiro wrestling with him by the door. _

"_Get a hold of yourself Charlie." Nanjiro said, shaking him by the shoulders. _

"_Let go Nanjiro. This doesn't concern you." My dad shouted. _

"_You need to stop this right now." Nanjiro said, pushing my dad towards the door. My dad stared at me for a second and then pushed Nanjiro away. He swept out the open door and into the rainy night. I heard his car start up and pull out of the driveway. I allowed Ryoma to comfort me while I cried and Nanjiro came over to me after a minute of watching out the front door. _

"_Alex, are you alright?" He asked making me look him in the eyes but I couldn't stop crying. "Come on. Let's get you to the hospital." _

There was a knock on my door that aroused me from my memory. I wasn't even sure if I had fallen asleep and if that had actually been a nightmare or what but when I came to I was staring at the floor of my bedroom.

"Alex darling." Rinko called from the other side of the door. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah." I called. "Just a stomach ache." I didn't hear anything after that so I curled up in my bed under my covers and cried myself to sleep thinking about all the painful memories.

* * *

**Oishi's POV**

I stood there in the music store, rooted to my spot. I wanted to move from that spot and sit next to her at the piano, but the song was so sad that it made me think of forgotten memories. I was literally glued to the floor.

It was the most beautiful piece I had ever heard anyone play and I wanted to tell her that. I watched as her fingers moved slowly and smoothly across the piano with talent far greater than her years. I got a lump in my throat as she closed her eyes and the look on her face was that of one who was completely at peace.

I felt guilty, like I was seeing something that was forbidden, something that she was never going to show anyone in her entire life.

The song came to an end and that final note made me sorry that the song was over.

The old man asked her a couple of questions, but I wasn't close enough to hear. I was still stuck in the same place, feeling like if I moved from this spot that I was going to forget the beauty of the music.

She nodded her head and started on another song. This song was sad but in a different kind of way, like a happy sad. This time it made me think of love and the promises of joy that finding love was going to be. I smiled to myself and when I watched Alex play for the second time I had a feeling that in these past months, none of us really even knew her. Like we all had just barely scraped the surface of a multi-layered onion and once again I felt that overwhelming sadness come over me. When the song ended I took 2 steps forward to let her know that I was here and I wanted an explanation but something in her had changed.

She quickly left and all I could do was walk to the front to pay for the cd that was I was going to send my sister.

"She played so beautiful." I told the old man while digging in my pocket for my wallet. "Do you know what those songs were called?"

"Yes. The 1st piece is called November by Kim Yoon and the 2nd piece is called Kiss the Rain by Yiruma. It's such a shame that she doesn't play anymore." He looked so sad and I had to wonder why she really wasn't playing. Maybe I would ask her on Monday?

"Thank you." I said as he handed me the bag and I started to head home.

* * *

**A/N: So for Alice's favorite song, go to youtube and type in 'November yoon' and it will be that first video. For the mom's favorite song type in 'Kiss the Rain yiruma' and it's also the first video. Beautiful songs, I love them. Hope you will too =)**


	23. Truths and Lies

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Prince of Tennis or any characters

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**Oishi's POV**

Monday rolled around and I walked with Eiji to school. We arrived at the wall and were soon joined by everyone else. I watched Alex out of the corner of my eye for a couple of minutes, but she didn't seem any different from Saturday.

"Hey," I said addressing the whole group. "Does anybody want to come with me to see Arashi Sasaki."

"How did you get tickets to see him? His tickets are sold out within the hour of going on sale 6 months before the event." Shusuke said.

"My sister's boyfriend knows the director of the Grand Hall that's hosting it. She said to invite all my friends, so they must have a lot of tickets. We'll be back stage and we even get to meet him in person." In truth I had asked my sister about him because she was a big music fanatic and I knew that she was in charge of his concert that night. I watched Alex as they talked about his style of play and there was the smallest of change in her. She didn't smile like she was happy, but she looked a bit worried.

"Count me in." Eiji said, hopping off the wall and smiling. "Do I have to rent a tux?" He asked.

"Formal wear is a must. Not so much a tux, but a dress shirt and black jacket." I told him.

"Umm. I beg to differ." Leon said, putting in his 2 cents. "This guy is a world class piano player. I've been to his concert in France and you're definitely going to want to wear a tux."

Everyone said they would come and it came down to Alex.

"I can't." She said, probably faking disappointment.

"That's too bad." Eiji said. "This guy is amazing. My mom listens to his cd when she's doing her meditations, works wonders for the house." Everyone laughed and we all started talking about different things.

The first bell rang and we all headed towards the school. I walked behind Alex and watched her back while she talked to Leon.

"It's a shame that you can't come with." Leon said.

"I know, tell me about. I would love to hear him play live in person. And you get to meet him?"

"I've already met him." Leon smirked.

"Oh shut up Mr. Violin player." She pushed him away from her and Leon waved, making his way in the direction of his class. Alex stopped at her locker and I don't really know what made me do it, but I went up behind her.

"I'll still count you in, just in case your mysterious plans happen to get canceled." I whispered in her ear, her hair tickling my face. "Maybe we'll hear him play November." I was pressed pretty close and I felt her body freeze. I didn't stick around to see the rest of her reaction, but made my way to my first class without looking back.

The whole day I was on edge and I don't even know why. During my free period I went to the library and found a quiet table at the back. I was working on my math homework when Sadaharu found me.

"Hey." He said, taking a seat across from me.

"Hey." I said not looking up from my math.

"It should be a good experience, seeing Arashi Sasaki's concert." Sadaharu took out a notebook and pen and started going through some of his notes, highlighting some and crossing out other parts.

"Have you ever been to a professional concert?" I asked, working on a problem the long way around.

"I have been to a few." He said, not looking at me.

"How have they made you feel?"

"Feel?" He asked, raising an eyebrow. I knew what he was thinking, but I stared at him seriously.

"I don't know. It was beautiful." He shook his head and went back to his notebook.

"Have you ever heard someone play that made you feel that the music was more than beautiful?" I asked, twirling the pen in between each finger. Sadaharu now looked at me like I was crazy. I looked around to make sure that nobody was around.

"On Saturday I was out and I went to this music store and I heard Alex playing the piano." I explained in a whisper. "It was.. The sound.. Was like.. Nothing I have ever heard in this world." Sadaharu looked at me and there was a spark in his eyes.

"Wait here. I'll be right back." And he took off running, leaving all of his stuff at the table. I went back to my math homework and Sadaharu didn't come back for a whole half hour. When he did get back, he had the look of someone who heard a secret that he didn't want to know.

"What I'm about to share with you is between me and you and me and you only." Sadaharu said, dropping a stack of papers on the table.

"Alright." I said. Trying to grab a paper off the top of the stack

"You can't even tell Eiji." He said, leaving his hand on top of the stack and looking me square in the eyes. The look in his eyes told me that if I told anyone else, I was probably going to die a very painful death.

"Not even Eiji." I agreed.

"Alex Cross. In the United States, she was a good enough pianist to make a living out of it." Sadaharu took the top piece of paper off the stack and handed it to me. There was a picture of Alex and she was sitting at a piano, no doubt in the middle of a song.

"Why didn't she tell us that she played?" I asked, looking through some more papers that were printouts of articles that were praising her skill.

"That's not where this ends." Sadaharu said. "Her parents were the 2 U.S. tennis Pro's Andrea and Charles Cross."

"Tennis Pro's?" I asked, not believing it.

"It gets worse." Sadaharu said. He handed me a clip with a family of 5 on it and I instantly noticed the 2 Pro's smiling with a boy about 17 and 2 identical girls about 15. All 3 of the kids were holding tennis medals and were kneeling by a huge trophy.

"Oh my god." I whispered. 1 of the twin girls was Alex. I looked at Sadaharu and he handed me some more articles.

The team that was led by the boy, Brian Cross, went to the nationals and won 3 consecutive times. The line-up was posted on each article, 3 of them each a year apart. The first 2 times Brian had played #1 singles and Alex and her twin sister Alice played #1 doubles. But the 3rd article, both Brian and Alice were missing from the roster and Alex was slotted for #1 singles.

According to that last article, it all came down to that match and she had won in a tie-breaker that lasted an hour.

"So she won the 3rd national title," I said impressed. "But why was she the only one there?" Sadaharu was looking at one article with sadness clearly written on his face.

On the front page, there was that same picture of the 5 of them but the headline read in big bold letters Tragedy Strikes, and I felt my heart begin to hurt even before I knew what happened.

I read the article and what happened made tears come to my eyes. From the summary, there was a 15 car pile-up on a highway the day of the finals. Her brother, her twin sister and her mother were all on their way to the Arena when they were hit by a drunk driver. The mother and the twin were DUA but the brother died a day later in intensive care.

"I wouldn't want anything to do with tennis after that either." Sadaharu said. The lump in my throat was so big that I didn't trust myself to say anything.

"So while she was playing her game for the National Title, her family was.." I couldn't bring myself to say dying. "But if they were all in the Nationals together then why wasn't she in the car with them?"

"That's the big mystery isn't it?" Sadaharu said. "Her dad's still alive too." All I could do was stare at the many many articles in front of us.

"We shouldn't know any of this." I whispered, sorry that I ever pried in the first place.

"You and me both." Sadaharu said, stacking all the articles back into a neat pile.

"She had a right to keep this from us." I sighed. I couldn't even begin to fathom how she was feeling and how she had managed to not be depressed about all this.

Me and Sadaharu sat there in silence, each of us just staring at the pile of papers asking unanswerable questions.

"We keep this to ourselves." Sadaharu said after a long moment of silence. "We don't tell anyone what we know and we leave Alex alone."

"Maybe we should help her." I said, the overwhelming guilt already eating away at me.

"C'mon Shuichiro. Use your head." I didn't know what Sadaharu was talking about. "Why do you think Leon is here? He's a childhood friend, so he must be trying to help her and he's getting nowhere. What makes you think that we can do what he can't when he's known her for how many years?"

"You have a point." I said.

"C'mon. Let's get to the wall." Just as he said that, the last bell rang throughout the school and I shook my head.

Pretending to not know what I really knew was easier said than done.

I was walking with Eiji to the wall when Alex grabbed me by the collar and forced me away from the group.

"Can I borrow you for a sec?" She said, anger lining her voice.

"Sure." I said not being able to resist in the first place. "I'll be right back." Eiji was watching us with bewilderment on his face.

"How did you know about that song?" She asked letting me go but not turning to me.

"I.. Lucky guess." I said, doing a horrible job of lying. I kicked myself mentally for being such a bad liar.

"Please don't lie to me." She whispered so that I almost didn't hear her. "This is really important to me." Hearing the pain in her voice, I couldn't lie to her.

"I heard you play on Saturday. I was there in the music store and the old man told me the name of the songs that you played."

"How much do you know?" She looked at me and I was taken aback that there were tears threatening to spill over.

"Not all the details." I told her. "Just what it said in the news articles."

"You researched me?" She asked angrily.

"Not me." I said quickly. "Sadaharu."

"Does everyone know?"

"Just us 2."

"You would do well to keep it that way." She said angrily. For the first time in the months that she had been here, I finally seen the tortured girl behind the strong mask that she was wearing.

"Maybe we can help you, if you would just give us the chance."

"Why don't you go find out more on the internet, then come and find me when you know what you're talking about." She stormed passed me and I couldn't really think of anything to say or do, I was just kind of stuck in that spot.

"What did you do?" Eiji asked, coming up behind me.

"Nothing." I said quietly.

"Why do you always have to give her such a hard time?" Eiji yelled at me. I turned to face him and I seen just how mad he truly was.

"I didn't do anything wrong." I said, carefully, trying hard to keep my cool.

"Just because she doesn't want to share something with you doesn't mean that you have to always give her a hard time about it." Eiji yelled.

"You wouldn't even know what was going on with her if Leon told you." I shouted back. I was so angry that he wasn't listening to me that I said whatever came to my head.

"At least I can wait till she decides to tell me." Eiji said, his icy stare giving me the chills. All the pent up anger that I felt just began pouring out of me then and it was very unfortunate that Eiji happened to be the one I was taking my anger out on.

"And she still wouldn't be yours." I said, standing my ground. Eiji stood there, frozen to his spot, not moving. He opened his mouth to say something but probably thought better of it and turned to walk away.

When I was alone, the weight of what just happened came crushing down on me and I lashed out by kicking over a garbage can.

"That's enough Shuichiro." My body instantly came to attention at the strong voice of Kunimitsu.

"Sorry." I whispered. "I really messed this one up."

"This isn't your fault." He said, picking up the garbage can. "I heard what happened with Eiji."

"Did you hear about Alex too?" I asked, afraid that she would think I told everyone if they all found out.

"No. I actually followed Eiji over. It looked like you and Alex were going to fight." I shook my head and stared ahead not really seeing anything.

"I'm here if you need anything." Kunimitsu said.

"I know." I said, shaking my head and walking towards the gates. Things were definitely going to get sticky real quick here if I wasn't careful enough.

* * *

**Tezuka's POV**

I sat there with my feet dangling in the pool and thinking about the day and I let out a long pent up sigh.

"Now that's a sound I haven't heard in a while." Keigo said, handing me a soda and sitting down next to me. I ignored him and continued to watch the water as I swished my feet around.

"Anything I can help you with?"

"Nah. Just stuff at school with the gang." I told him.

"C'mon. It wouldn't do you any good to keep it bottled up and what better person to let it out to the a completely neutral 3rd party?" He asked and I had to laugh. Thinking about it now it was probably a good idea to vent and Keigo was a pretty good listener.

"Do you remember that American girl that I told you about that came here with Ryoma?" I asked. When he didn't say anything I turned to him and was confused at the look on his face.

"Girl?" He asked me, astounded. "All this trouble is over a girl?"

"Not like that." I told him, annoyed.

"Alight, train of thought back on the tracks. So this girl.." He pushed me back into the right direction. I began to tell him everything that's been happening lately and when I was done with the story he also sighed heavily.

"So you're sure that she likes Eiji?" He asked.

"It's plain as day to everyone but him." I said, thinking about it.

"And Shuichiro?" he asked.

"I don't know about him. It's not like he doesn't like her but there's definitely something going on with them 2."

"What do you think?" He asked me seriously.

"I think that there's more to her then what we really know. Something that she doesn't want anyone to know." I said, thinking about how she acted sometimes. "But if there is, then she must have a good reason for it and I don't want to know unless she wants to tell me."

"You're so mature." He said, also putting his legs in the water after he rolled up his pants. "If that was me, I would want to find out everything I could about her."

"That's what I thought at first. But it's obvious when you watch her around Leon that it's something painful." I told him sadly. I wanted to help but I just didn't know how to proceed from here. I could feel it in the pit of my stomach that if I didn't do something very soon, everything was going to become unraveled and the bonds that we built up over the past 2 years were going to be tested in far stronger stuff then we've been through.

"I really wish I could help you out." Keigo said laying down and putting his head in my lap. "You know how much I hate seeing you like this."

"I know." I said, smiling and stroking the hair out of his face and off the side. "Let's not worry about it right now."

"I know the perfect way of getting your mind off things." He said, shooting up and kissing me. I smiled through the kiss, he definitely had a way around words I thought as he his kiss became deeper with meaning.

In a few seconds, everything about the day left my mind and all I could think about was this perfect moment.

"Bet you I can beat you upstairs." He breathed in my ear and started kissing my neck and the hairs on my arms began to stand up.

"You're on." I whispered back and we both began to race across the lawn. All my thoughts could wait until tomorrow for the time being. What could possibly happen by then?


	24. Coming Clean

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Prince of Tennis or any characters

* * *

**Oishi's POV**

I hadn't really gotten any sleep last night, thinking about Alex and the things that I had said to Eiji. I had tried to apologize but he was avoiding me like I was the plague. I yawned sitting on the wall and waiting for the bell to ring.

"So the concert is this Friday right?" Shusuke asked, sitting on the ground and looking through his back pack.

"Yeah." I said, letting out another big yawn.

"What's the matter with you?" Momo asked me, standing and leaning on the wall.

"Studying late." I shrugged it off. I watched the front gates for Alex, but there was no sign of her so I laid down across the wall, closing my eyes for a second and thinking about how I was going to be able to apologize to Eiji if he wasn't talking to me.

"Hey man." I felt a punch on my arm and I jerked awake. "The bell just rang." Kaoru was lifting his bag over his shoulder and I was aware that everyone was already halfway to the school. I sat up and shook off the drowsiness and the coldness and stood up to stretch. We were going to have to find a new meeting place soon cause it was getting colder and colder by the day.

"Hey." Said a voice behind me that almost scared me out of my skin. It was Alex. "Can I talk to you?"

"Now." I asked already taking a step towards the school, not wanting to be alone with her. "The bell just rang."

"I heard it." She told me staring at the ground. "But don't you want to know about me?" I stopped and waited for her to look at me and when she did, there was something oddly different about her. Like the way she looked different playing the piano, it wasn't something physical but something non-tangible.

"I do." I told her truthfully. "But can't it wait till after school?"

"If you want to know now, then no it can't wait till after school. I just decided this this morning when I rolled out of bed. I might change my mind if I don't tell someone now."

"Why me?" I had to ask.

"Because you already know most of it." She told me. The 2nd bell rang and I was stuck staring at her. I really wanted to know and in the end my curiosity got the better of me.

"Alright." I agreed. So we ditched school and I allowed her to lead me into the city. I didn't know where we were going and I didn't ask questions.

Finally we came to the Art Institute and we went in. I was nervous for reasons unknown and we wondered the 2nd floor for 20 minutes before she even asked me a question.

"So how much do you really know?" She asked me while she looked at a painting.

"Well." I said, thinking about it while I looked at a scale model of an old boat. "I heard you play the piano on Saturday and just all that it says in the papers."

"And what does it say in the papers?" She asked, moving on to the next painting.

"Just that you have 2 tennis pro players for parents. From the pictures, you had an older brother and a.." I thought about the accident and I couldn't bring myself to say twin.

"Yes. I had a twin sister. Her name was Alice." I felt my heart beat quicken in that second, I was finally going to find out about her. "I played tennis even before I can remember. Like it was always just there, like a part of me that I was just born with. But when something is always there, you kind of get sick of it."

I moved on to the next scale model of a house and listened very carefully.

"It was an accident that I stumbled onto the sound of music in the first place." She said with a small laugh. "I can remember it like it was just yesterday." I watched as she got this faraway look in her eyes and we stopped moving.

"His name was Alexander Johansen. Everyone called him Alex, like me." She laughed. "I was on my way to the tennis court when I heard the most beautiful sound coming from a nearby building. I stopped walking and I wanted to know where it was coming from. I sat outside the window on the first floor and I listened to him while he practiced with his teacher and when he was done I was sad because it was over."

"I took that same route everyday on my way to practice, hoping that I could just listen to one song. One day I heard him and his teacher going over what he needed to go over for his recital the next night and I skipped out early on practice the next day to go and see him. That's how I met Leon, him and Leon were doing a duet show and Leon was great. I also wanted to hear him play but he wasn't even close to Alexander's level."

"Our old school had a music wing on it so the night after I heard them play I began to go to the music room and secretly I started teaching myself how to play the piano, it just seemed like the easiest instrument to start on." She smiled and we began to walk again, slowly making our way down the hall.

"I didn't bother to tell anyone about my new found hobby but as the days dragged on, I found myself only wanting to play the piano and getting restless with tennis. Alice was the first one who noticed me sneaking off and for a couple of months, it was our little secret. Soon enough though, she convinced me to tell the family and when I did, my mom bought me the most beautiful Grande piano for my birthday." Once I again, I watched her and it looked as if her mind was a million miles away, which it probably was.

"My dad and Brian were skeptical of me playing the piano, saying that it was taking more and more of my concentration each day, which it was. I started doing recitals and sooner than possible I was better then some kids who practiced for years." She sighed and once again we began to circle without saying anything.

"Me and Leon did a number of duet recitals together and when the reporters came they called us the synchronized duo. Leon liked all the attention but for me, it was putting more strain on me at home. My dad wanted me to quit the piano altogether and Brian refused to even listen to me. Up to the day he passed I don't think he ever listened to me." She made a choking sound and I made a point to not look at her but stare at the Vase in front of me.

"When my mom finally convinced my dad to come to one of my recitals, he no longer thought it was a waste of time. He was still coming around but by that time me and Brian were no longer on speaking terms. I hated those days so much that every day I asked myself what I was doing. As the days turned into weeks, I regretted playing the piano more and more but no matter what I told myself I couldn't quit."

I shook my head. Under her strong mask of happiness, she was suffering so much and all I wanted to know was what she was hiding. I began to get a nasty taste in my mouth and it wouldn't go away no matter how many times I tried to swallow the taste away.

"I can remember the day that I decided to give up tennis." She said, sitting down on a bench. I joined her and watched her as she remembered that day. "My dad had finally got over the fact that I wasn't going on to Pro status. The only one who it really caught off guard was Brian. He was furious, he stayed at our friends house for a whole week. He refused to look at me at school. It was like I no longer existed to him." She took a deep breath and wiped a single tear from her face.

"It took him 2 whole months to even look at me and 2 months after that to talk to me. Our relationship was hanging on by a thread. One more fight and I seriously think that we wouldn't have been able to fix it. So I told him that I was tired of fighting and all he had to do to fix it or leave it broken was to listen to me play. He agreed to listen to me after the finals." This time, she didn't bother to wipe away the tears that were falling freely down her face.

"We talked about it and he told me that it was alright that I was no longer playing tennis with him and Alice but he made me promise that I would be the first person in line to see them when they made it all the way. In return, he would sit front row to all my more important recitals." I swallowed the lump in my throat as I watched the tears spill over on her pretty face.

"The night of my recital that was going to decide my music career, I realized that all I ever wanted was to know from Brian that it would be alright if I didn't play tennis with him. Our relationship was so close, even closer than me and my twin, that I just wanted him to tell me that if I quit tennis it was o.k. with him. It was always 'When we're tennis Pro's we'll do this' and 'Once we overcome mom and dad we'll be like this.' I just wanted acceptance the way I was going to be. He finally excepted it and I felt wrong playing the piano for a living. My dad had come with me to my recital and we raced to the Stadium as fast as we could."

"I looked for Brian's smiling face but I never found it that day." I could no longer swallow over the lump in my throat and I let a few tears slip before I could wipe them away. "I played that sunny perfect day but I knew that something was wrong. I knew it in the pit of my stomach but I ignored it. I played with everything I had in me that day, hoping beyond hope that my feeling was wrong and that when they arrived late due to something unimportant and small that they would see me playing my heart out and cheer me on. I hoped with all that I had that when I won that championship we would go out and celebrate like the way we did the last 2 years." She put her hands up to her face and sobbed into them silently. Again, the lump in my throat was getting to be unbearable.

"A week after the accident, my dad took up drinking. Probably to numb the pain, or to forget that it existed or both, I'll never know. He would come home and beat me." She choked on the last word and I reached out to touch her but she flinched away from me so the gesture was lost. "It was Ryoma and Nanjiro who found out and saved me. Nanjiro told my dad that he was taking me and there was nothing he could do about it. And that's how I ended up here." She concluded the end of the story like it was some happy ending to a fairy tale, which kind of made me mad.

"Do you know the worst part?" She asked, half laughing/half crying. I shook my head no, not trusting myself to speak. The saddest look she had yet to have, broke out on her face and more tears came. "Brian died before we could fix our relationship. He died and all I wanted him to know was that I was back on board to becoming a Pro." This time she cried so uncontrollably that I figured she had never voiced that pain to anyone before. I scooted closer to her and tried to put my arm around her to comfort her.

"DON'T." She screamed so loud and fast that it scared me. "I don't want you to feel sorry for me." She jumped up and turned on me and I was so confused that I couldn't move.

"What?" I asked.

"I don't need your sympathy." She cried through her tears. "I'm sick of people looking at me like they want to say something but then don't. I'm sick of them walking on eggshells around me, like I'm a live bomb about to go off any second."

"Then what do you want?" I shouted back at her angrily. She looked back me with the same confusion I felt 2 seconds ago.

"I want.." She said in a small voice looking at the floor. "I want everything to go back the way it was. I wish I never found the piano." She cried. I stood up and faced her.

"There's nothing you can do about it now." I said in a clear crisp voice. Alex nodded and once again broke into uncontrollable tears but this time when I moved to comfort her she didn't move away. I pulled her into a stronger embrace and I felt her knees buckle and her weight as her legs gave out from underneath her and she truly cried like a baby. We sunk onto the floor and all I could was continue to hold her.

While it was true that I felt sorry for her in this moment, I felt a sense of pride about myself. I had a feeling that some of these things she had never shared with anybody and she had chosen me to open up to.

"Why did this happen to me?" She sobbed into my chest, holding onto a fistful of my shirt. "Why me?" Now I had to choose my words carefully.

"Bad things happen to good people all the time. It's a test of your inner strength." I told her gently. "And you have some mighty strong inner spirit."

"This sucks." She cried even more.

"Who said it was easy?" I asked her. Her silence was enough for me. We probably sat there for a half hour even after she stopped crying. I didn't want to let her go till she pushed me away. I wanted to be her strong fortress to help her get over this more smoothly.

"Do you want to know why I push Eiji away?" She asked in a soft voice. This was another one of my unanswered questions. I didn't say anything but she continued anyway. "Because I don't have the right to be happy." She said sadly. Angry at this statement, I grabbed her by the shoulders and forced her to look at me.

"Everyone has a right to be happy in life." I told her. This was the reason she was causing Eiji heartache? Because she believed that she didn't deserve happiness?

"I don't." She told me simply. "It's my fault that the accident happened."

"If you're choosing to blame anyone, you should blame the drunk driver." I told her. "That was not your fault. You weren't even there."

"If I had just gotten over the selfish reasons I was really playing the piano in the first place, none of this would even be happening." She told me. "On the day of the accident, they were delayed by half an hour because Alice was arguing with me trying to get me to go. If I had just excepted that I was born to play tennis, we would've been on time and we all would've missed that accident."

"You can't know that." I told her in the same voice that I used to tell her that she couldn't do anything about it. "You don't know what would've happened if you were there that day. No one will ever be able to know that. So it's no use wondering about those things, that's how people end up going crazy. They think about the if's and but's of life."

"All the same," She sighed. "I don't deserve to have someone like Eiji in my life." She smiled so sadly that I was stuck for a minute and she took that moment of hesitation to get up.

"You can't…" I tried to say, but she cut me off.

"It's too late." She sighed. "But thank you for today. You have no idea how much you helped me." I got up and she gave me a quick hug.

"I really didn't do anything." I said, shy that she was giving me so much credit. I was surprised when she laughed a bit.

"Your definitely top 3." She said.

"Top 3?" I asked curiously.

"You'll find out eventually." She smiled meanly at me and wiped the last tears from her face. "C'mon. It's almost 2." I looked down at my watch and I couldn't believe how much time had passed.

"Guess I'll walk you home then." I shrugged.

"Don't worry about it." She smiled. "I'm a big girl. I'm pretty sure I can find my own way home. Plus, I have a lot I want to think about."

"Are you sure?" I asked. She nodded and we left the building. We parted on the subway station and when I waved goodbye to her, my heart felt oddly heavy. I began to wonder what I would be doing in her situation. I shook it off and tried to think about how I was going to get Eiji to talk to me.

And with that thought occupying my mind, I slowly made my way home.

* * *

**A/N: So sorry for the long period between updates but I started my new job, and with that on top of school I have very little time to write. Hope you like it =) Until next time.**


	25. Duets and Promises

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Prince of Tennis or any characters

**Alex's POV**

I laid on my bed Wednesday night, just staring at my ceiling. I still couldn't believe that I had told Oishi about the whole accident. When I went to school today, I had finally felt at ease around everyone, including Leon. It was a strange feeling, and every time I thought about it I couldn't help but to smile. Every time Oishi came around I also had the feeling that things were going to be alright and I got comfortable whenever he was near me.

"You look different." Said a voice in my doorway, I was startled that Ryoma was there.

"Don't scare me like that." I laughed.

"What's different about you?" He asked, studying me. I laughed at the serious look he had on his face.

"I don't know?" I shrugged, even though I had a vague idea.

"Mom says dinner is ready." He shrugged it off and walked away. Smiling to myself, I got up and headed to the kitchen to eat some dinner.

The next day at school, I was puzzled when I didn't see anyone at the wall. Realizing that it was super cold out, I went in and found the guys all in the main doorway to the school.

"What's everyone doing here?" I asked absently dumping my beg by Oishi.

"In case you haven't noticed, the first snow has finally fallen." Kiryu laughed.

"Really?" I said, thinking about it. In my happy state, I hadn't really been thinking about the weather but now I noticed that it was cold on my way walking here.

"Yeah and we're supposed to get some snow this weekend." Leon told me.

"That reminds me of the winters back in the states." I said, smiling at Leon.

"Back in the states?" He asked, obviously caught off guard.

"Yeah. Like when we would have snowball fights and that one year we had snowman building contest." I laughed and Leon seemed kind of hesitant to laugh along with me. The bell rang and I stooped to pick up all my things.

"What's wrong with you?" Leon whispered to me as I started to my locker.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"Well, since the other day you just seem different." He said carefully.

"Different how so?" I wanted to know, I felt different but I wanted to know what I looked like to other people on the outside.

"I don't know. What happened between you and Shuichiro?" He asked, turning on me quickly. I had to give him some credit here, he knew me so well.

"What do you mean 'what happened?" I asked, already a smile creeping on my face and giving me away.

"What happened?" He asked me more seriously now that he saw that smile.

"Do you want to play with me tonight?" I asked even before I knew what I was saying myself.

"What?" He asked me. "Where the hell did that come from?"

"No need to yell at me." I said, my feelings a little hurt. "If you don't want to play with me then all you had to say was no."

"I do want to play with you, but…" He couldn't finish his sentence entirely.

"I'll give you the address at lunch." I smiled at him. "I've got the perfect place." And I left him there gaping at me while I headed to class.

The only reason I really left it alone was because I really didn't know why I had said that either. It had just come out and he was the perfect one to ask. I smiled to myself when the fact finally hit home that this was beginning of me starting to play and up to the time of lunch, I had an internal battle raging inside me as to whether I should play tennis or play the piano. I couldn't make up my mind and I found myself wanting to talk to no one else but Ryoma. I pushed the momentary sadness away as I caught sight of Oishi.

I waited till he caught my eye and I smiled and waved at him hesitantly. He nodded and turned to say a few things to the people who were around him and came to see me.

"Can I ask you something?" I almost whispered.

"Yeah, of course. Anything." He smiled.

"I'm going to play the piano with Leon today. Do you want to come with?" He looked taken aback for a minute and seemed to be really thinking about it.

"Yes. But about Eiji…" He trailed off. Instantly my heart grew heavy and I didn't want to think about it.

"I'll eventually fix things with him. But please, I need your help right now." I looked at his face and waited for him to look at me in the eyes.

"I still don't understand." He sighed, after staring into my eyes for a minute. "Why me? Why did you tell me everything? You have Leon and Ryoma and your probably closer to some of the other guys then you were with me. So why did you tell me?"

I looked away from him. I didn't know the answer to that.

"I can't really tell you." I told him honestly. "There are people who I would choose to tell before you, but the other day it just seemed like you were the perfect person. Sure, Leon and Ryoma were there and they both know me like the back of their own hands but maybe that's why I could tell you and not them. Maybe I needed someone to tell that wasn't there, that doesn't know me half as well. Maybe the reason I could tell you was that you won't judge me like they will." I blinked tears away quickly and smiled at him.

"I'm glad that I could help." He said, smiling back. "I'll be there to hear you play today."

"Thanks." I let out a pent up sigh of breathe and dug in my back pack. "This is the address. Try to be there around 6:30. I'm going to run home and get Ryoma."

"Sounds good. Now let's get to lunch, I'm starving." I laughed and we both headed to the lunch room. Once we got there, Shuichiro sat on one end and I sat on the other end with Leon and Kiryu.

"You and Oishi seem to be getting along well." Kiryu whispered out of the side of his mouth.

"What do you mean?" I asked, trying not to attract attention to us.

"I seen you 2 exchange something a minute ago. What are you guys, going out now?" He said through a bite of food.

"No." I scoffed.

"You can't fool me." Kiryu snorted. "Whatever happened that day that you 2 skipped school together changed the way you both look at each other. He never used to pay so much attention to you before but now every few seconds he tends to look your way, like he's waiting for you to look back at him or something." Involuntarily I looked up and sure enough he was looking at me but as quickly as he looked at me he also looked away.

"It's not like that." I whispered back.

"Then how is it?" He asked, now looking at me. "Cause to someone on the outside, that's sure as hell how it seems." I was taken aback by his anger for a minute and I didn't really understand why he was acting the way he was. I looked down at my food, not able to come with a reason that sounded right when I would say it out loud.

"I don't know how to explain it." I finally told him. He just shook his head and didn't say anymore on the subject. Shaking off the uneasiness I felt from Kiryu and turned to Leon. "How is Aurore?" I asked.

"She's doing well." He laughed. "She wished I would come home so that dad would quit paying so much attention what she's doing." I laughed along with him and we passed the rest of the time by with small stories about Aurore and him when he was still in France.

When the bell rang, I quickly wrote down the address to the music store and gave it to Leon.

"Be there around 6:30." I whispered to him and headed off to class. With half the day gone, it seemed that the second half seemed to fly by in the wind of an eye. At the end of the day I didn't stick around to talk but headed straight home to hurry and find Ryoma.

When he got home an hour and half later, all the jitters of finally deciding to play were getting to me and I couldn't sit still.

"Hey." I practically yelled when he walked in the front door. "I need you to come with me."

"For what?" He asked incredulously.

"Me and Leon are going to play." I smiled at him. When he continued to stare at me in disbelief, I had to laugh at the look on his face.

"You and Leon?" He asked, confused.

"Yeah." I laughed even harder. "C'mon." He shook of his momentary lapse of confusion and smiled.

"Alright. Let me shower up then." And with the biggest smile ever, he quickly showered and we went on our way to the music store.

**RYOMA'S POV**

"Are you sure about this?" I asked Alex as we waited outside the music store for Leon.

"Yes." She said, blowing into her hands to keep them warm. Light snow was falling and there was already a light blanket covering the ground.

"What happened that you just suddenly decided now?" I had to ask. I had wanted to ask since the other day but I couldn't bring myself to ask, not wanting to ruin her happiness.

"It's a long story." She breathed, which wasn't really the answer I was looking for. I went to open my mouth to ask in a more specific manner when she smiled and waved. For a moment I had thought that Leon had finally arrived and I checked my watch. It was 6:25 and when I looked up my words got stuck in my mouth as I seen Shuichiro smiling at Alex.

"Hey Ryoma." He said, waving back. "Long time no see."

"Indeed." Was all I could manage to squeeze out.

"I can't wait to hear you play again." Shuichiro said, standing next to Alex and smiling like Christmas had come early.

"You've heard her play?" I asked taken aback.

"From afar." He laughed. I stared at Alex but she was too busy smiling at Shuichiro. I couldn't believe what I was seeing here.

"Are you 2 dating?" I asked them before I could stop myself.

"What?" Alex asked, finally looking at me.

"Of course not." Shuichiro said, the smile dropping from his face instantly. "Is that how it looks?" He asked.

"Yes." I told them truthfully. "Why do you think I asked?" Alex was looking at the ground now and Shuichiro was looking away down the road like he was expecting someone else to show up. I had to wonder if they were lying to me.

"Hey." Said a voice from behind me and I nearly jumped out of my socks.

"Sorry I'm late." Leon said. "Aurore called and wouldn't let me go."

"It's no problem." Alex laughed. "Are you ready?"

"Yeah." Leon said, letting out a pent up breath. We headed into the store and a very old guy greeted us.

"Nice to see you again." He smiled at Alex. The surprises just kept on coming.

"You've played here before?" I asked. Alex made a small nod and turned to the old guy.

"May we use a practice room?" Alex asked, taking out her wallet to pay for some time.

"I'll tell you what." The old man said, his eyes twinkling. "It's almost closing time, so if you're going to play, why don't you play on that grand that you love so much?" Alex made the smallest of nods and we followed her to the back where there were some pianos. Alex sat down at one and instantly there was something different about her. It wasn't something that I could even describe, but it took my breath away even before she started to play.

Leon took his Violin out of the case and tuned it while Alex stared at the keys, running her fingers across the top ones lightly.

"Any preference?" Leon asked when he was all done messing with his Violin. Alex smiled and there was something that passed between the 2 of them. Without another word, Alex started to play.

The piano part started out the song and Leon just watched her for a second and joined in at the perfect spot. The way those 2 played together was amazing, there sound going so smoothly together that it was as natural as water running over smooth rocks.

I was captivated by both of them, trying to look at them both at the same time but not being able to. I watched Leon first, his posture was so straight and natural it made me jealous. He closed his eyes and concentrated on the rate of play.

I glanced at Alex and was taken aback. She also had her eyes closed but it seemed to me that she was in a peaceful state of mind and I instantly knew what Leon was talking about when he said that she was born to play. I closed my eyes and listened, breathing through my nose letting the music sink in. When I looked at her again, I smiled.

She was smiling a smile that I hadn't seen in almost a year and half and it brought tears to my eyes. There was a very small piano solo and Leon stared at her, probably mesmerized like I was. He waited for the right time to join back in and when he did the music never missed a step.

The piano part ended and the violin had the last few bars, but when it ended I felt as if the world was never going to be the same again.

"What was that piece called?" I whispered, not wanting to ruin the memory of that music.

"A River Flow in You." Alex said, smiling at Leon.

"Let's do another one." Leon smiled excitedly and Alex started out with Canon. It was a universal enough piece and I was very interested to see how the Violin would sound with it. I had only ever heard it played just piano style.

Once again I was blown away by both their technique. Alex started out slow and when it was time for Leon to join, he jumped at the right moment. They both made look as easy as breathing.

I was able to just sit back and watch both of them this time but more or so taking in my fill of Alex. It was like there had been no misery in the last year. Like these moments were making up for all that time.

I was sad when the song came to end and found that I liked the version with the added violin more then I liked just piano one.

"That was the most beautiful sound to my ears." The old man said, leaning on a piano nearby. "And I've been around for quite a long time." We all laughed and I wiped the moisture from my eyes.

"We should enter a contest together." Leon said, getting ahead of himself. "There's one coming up next week that I'm in but I could easily talk to the director and have in you in on the list.."  
"No." Alex said quietly, her hands still on the piano.

"What?" Leon asked. "Why not?"

"I just don't want to quite yet." She said looking down at the ground.

"C'mon Alex." Leon pushed.

"No." Alex said more forcibly this time.

"Why won't you play?" Leon almost shouted. "This is something you were born to do."

"And why can't you give this a rest." She shouted back. Neither me nor the old man or Shuichiro could talk, all of us knowing that something was going on.

"Why are you so focused on being normal?" Leon shouted. "News flash, normal is a little over-rated."

"And why do you want me to play when it hurts so much to do it?" Alex shouted. "Do you just enjoy seeing me in pain?"

"If you would play more often than maybe the pain would slowly go away."

"How would you know?" She said, finally coming to tears. "It wasn't your brother, your mother, or your twin sister that died. So tell me, how would you know?"

"Brian was my best friend." Leon shouted. "So why don't you for one second stop thinking that you were the only one hurt when that car crash happened. Do you think that me and Ryoma don't feel like crying every time with think about it. Or Rinko doesn't look at your mom's photo and cry. Or Nanjiro doesn't feel regret when he thinks about your dad?" Now Leon had stepped over the line.

"Stop." I said, standing up. "Leon, I told you long ago not push this."

"Shut up Ryoma." Leon shouted not looking at me. "We were all affected too you know. So why don't you try letting us in to help you."

"Fine." Alex shouted. "Brian was your best friend, but half of me died that day. Me and Alice were once one. We were meant to be one. Tell me how you can get over something like that and I'll let you in." Leon looked like he was at a loss for words

"That's right." Alex said, icily. "You will never know what it's like to lose the other half of you." She grabbed her jacket and stormed out of the Music Store.  
"I told you not to push it with her." I shouted at Leon.

"She needs to come to terms with what happened and nobody but me wants to push her in that direction." I took 2 giant strides towards him and grabbed him by the collar of his shirt shoving him until he slammed into another piano.

"Don't you dare think that none of us want to see her do the things she loves." I growled, more angry that he didn't trust me with Alex's well-being then anything. "You care so much for your music career that you can't see that she was making progress."

"I'm giving her a good push in the right direction." He spat. "What are you doing? Nothing but coddling her. She's strong enough for this but you just won't push her."

"No wonder Brian didn't ask you to take care of her," I said darkly. "Because he knew that you were never good enough for the job." I gave him another hard shove and grabbed my jacket to follow after Alex. The snow falling outside made it easy for me to follow her and the whole time I cursed at Leon until I noticed that the footprints weren't following the normal path home. I looked up to see where the prints were going and cursed some more in general when I saw the busiest street in all of Tokyo ahead of me. I ran to the edge of the street but it was obvious that I wasn't going to find Alex.

In an angry huff, I headed home. It was the only thing I could do. Once at home, I went to my room and locked the door behind me. I plopped down on my bed and laid on my stomach, trying to calm the anger that was pulsing through my veins. Maybe I was a little harsh on Leon just then but I didn't understand how he could push her so hard. Of course I never thought of Alex as weak but this was an entirely different matter. I closed my eyes and thought about that day in the hospital when Brian had out his faith me.

"_Mr. Cross would like to see you." A beautiful nurse was saying to me. I was still in a state of shock and it took me a minute to find my voice. _

"_Me?" I asked huskily. _

"_Yes." The nurse nodded. "He's awake and he says he won't see anyone until he sees you." I looked across the room at Alex and she was still in same position as she was yesterday, hugging her legs and her face resting on her knee's staring at the floor. I felt guilty that he was seeing me before he was seeing her. _

_I got up and followed the nurse down the hall and it felt like the longest walk of my life. Everything and everybody that was passing seemed like it was going in slow motion. It could've taken me 10 years to walk down the hall or 10 seconds, I'll never remember. _

_The nurse held open the door for me and when I walked in, I thought he had gone back to sleep. I stared at him, the figure before me couldn't possibly be Brian it was so broken and torn. I swallowed over the lump in my throat as I took in the IV hooked up to his arm, the bloody bandage that was covering all if his left arm, the black and blue bruise on right side of his face, and last but not least the broken fingers on his right hand that was now a cast. _

"_Took you long enough to get here." Brian said in a rough voice. "I could've gone back to sleep for another 8 years." He opened his eyes and smiled and then winced. _

"_Hey man." I whispered. "You look good." I lied. _

"_I sure as hell hope so cause I feel like shit." He laughed and then winced again. I went and sat down on the chair next to his bedside, unsure what to say or do. _

"_I need you to promise me something." Brian said. When I looked at him, I saw the fire in his eyes that I had only seen once in my entire life. _

"_Anything man." I whispered, staring into his eyes. _

"_Take care of Alex for me." He said. For a second I was confused and when I took his full meaning, my eyes started to water. _

"_You're going to be alright." I told him. "There's no lasting damage." I willed myself to believe that and for a few seconds, I did. _

"_Didn't your mom ever tell you that's it's not nice to lie?" He laughed. I couldn't bring myself to laugh with him. Not this time, this time it didn't count. _

"_You're going to pull through this." I told him forcibly. _

"_Just promise me." He begged. I finally saw how torn he was on the inside. Brian who was never afraid of anything was asking me to take care of his baby sister. _

"_If you just pull through this and fight, I won't have to make this promise." I told him and finally, the tears that I couldn't hold back anymore flooded over. _

"_I can't go to sleep know that I left her here." Brian said, looking away and up at the ceiling. "She'll never forgive me I know that. But at least I left her in capable hands." He smiled at like the whole world was going to be alright. _

"_I can't." I told him. "I'm not you." _

"_You just wish you were." He smiled. I was caught between a laugh and a sob when he said that I put my face in my hands for a second. How could he be so cool about what he knew was coming. _

"_Are you afraid?" I asked, not looking at him. _

"_I'm afraid of leaving Alex alone." He told me. "But as long as she's in your care, I know she'll be alright." Finally coming to a decision, I nodded. _

"_I'll take care of her." Brian nodded once and closed his eyes, his breathing a little irregular. I cried right there beside Brian more then I will probably cry in my lifetime and when he passed away 4 hours later, I vowed that I wouldn't let him down. _

I wiped the one tear that slid down my cheek away and covered my head with the pillow. I had to figure out something to do and quick before it was all too late.

But right then and there, my mind was completely blank of ideas.

**A/N: **So for Alex and Leon's duet, go to youtube and type in 'river flows in you piano/duet' and click on the first video. For the Canon one type in 'canon duet piano and violin' It will be the 5th one down, the sheet music one. It's kind of slow but it was the best quality I could find. Enjoy =)


	26. Fights Among Friends

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Prince of Tennis or any characters

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**Eiji's POV**

I had no idea what was wrong with me but seeing Oishi and Alex together just made my blood boil. Something had passed between them in these last couple of days and it was like they were going to keep getting closer and closer until…

I shook the unhappy thoughts from my mind and tried to concentrate on the book I was trying to read. We were all sitting around in the foyer to the school. It was pretty cold outside so now we had to practice on our own time on inside courts. One of the worst things about winter.

I risked a glance across the space of our group to look at Shuichiro but it was obvious to me that he was distracted. Every time the double doors would open he would quickly glance up and see who was coming in the door. I felt that familiar feeling of my blood beginning to boil. Couldn't he at least try to hide how smitten he was with her?

I tossed down my book and everyone looked up to stare at me. I glared at Shuichiro until he registered that I was even looking at him. Once he saw the look on my face I could tell that he groaned internally.

"Not now Eiji." He said, standing up when he saw Leon come through the front doors. I also stood up and saw that Shuichiro and Leon made eye contact and something passed between them but Leon just strode right by us without saying anything.

"What was that?" I tried to ask casually.

"I don't know." Shuichiro said, running his hands through his hair. "I think it was about the fight they had last night." I didn't need to ask who because it was obvious to associate Alex with Leon but there was one thing that bothered me.

"How do you know they were fighting last night?" I could hear the anger evident in my own voice and I cursed at myself for not being able to keep my cool. Shuichiro closed his eyes and I knew that he was sorry that he let that one slip.

"Well, I was with them last night." He said through gritted teeth.

"With them?" I asked dangerously. "Or just her?"

"Ryoma and Leon were there the entire time too." Shuichiro said, now turning on me. "How could you think that I would do such a thing to you?"

"You have been spending a lot of time with her." I told him, looking down at my nails so that I didn't have to see the look on his face. "And I saw the way you looked at her all day yesterday. Something has changed with you 2 and there can only be one explanation."

"On what wavelength?" Shuichiro shouted at me. I almost took a step back at the anger and hurt in his voice but I decided this was one fight we had duke out.

"Are you going out with her or aren't you?" I shouted back, equally angry.

"Of course not." He said. There was another gust of wind and instantly he looked at the door to see if it was her.

"You can't lie to me. You care more for her then you ever did in the past." I shouted, closing the distance between us quickly.

"It's true that I misjudged her." Shuichiro shouted back at me. "And I'm sorry for what she's going through and that I forced her hand."

"So the other day…" I said, leaving the rest open for him to fill in the blanks.

"The other day when we skipped school I went with her and she told me what happened with her." He told me carefully and tried to explain more. "I had no idea that it was that severe. I thought it was something petty."

"And what exactly did she all tell you?" I asked. He studied me for a moment and I could tell that he was calculating.

"I can't tell you." He said after a minute of staring into my eyes. "It isn't my right to tell you and by all fairness I shouldn't even know myself."

"Bullshit." I said, my blood returning to boiling point once again. "There is something going on between you 2 but your just not man enough to tell me yourself."

"Man enough?" Shuichiro shouted. "Man enough. This is not about my pride or your feelings this is about what's best for Alex."

"What's best for Alex?" I asked, almost laughing. "Cause you would know so much about that. You never cared about her feelings until 2 days ago. What has changed that made you so sympathetic to her case?"

"I've had enough." Shuichiro scoffed.

"Yeah?" I asked as he was turning away. "Well I'm not done with you." I grabbed him by the shoulder to make him face me and tell me what was going on once and for all.

He took a step away from me and pushed my arm away so rough that I was caught off balance and almost fell to my left.

"I said I've had enough." Shuichiro said dangerously.

"Not until you give me some straight answers and not this half ass bullshit." I spat, trying once again to grab a hold of his arm. There was no real reason for us to fight but I could already tell that that's where it was going to end up anyway.

Shuichiro took a swing at me but I dodged it and stepped to the side. I made for a left hook but he was just as fast and also dodged. Without warning, I felt all my weight as Shuichiro grabbed me around the waist in a massive bear hug and picked me up and slammed me into the wall. Instantly all the air was knocked out of me and I was completely winded. He took this moment of weakness to his advantage and hit me so hard in my jaw that I swear he had just broken it.

"Hey." I heard Momo shout from somewhere far away. "Break it up."

Without really thinking I lashed out, hoping I got him somewhere that would count when all this was over. I felt a small pang of joy as my closed fist hit soft flesh and his bear hug seemed to lessen. That was all I needed and with my catlike reflexes I wriggled free of his bear hug and hit him in his left side that was open and defenseless.

"Hey." Shusuke also tried to stop us from fighting but I wasn't having it. I was going to get answers from him one way the other.

I felt another pang of joy as I actually saw my fist connect this time and I knew that I had hit him good.

"Why won't you just tell her how you feel?" He shouted at me, which seemed like the logical thing to do in this situation.

"What does it matter to you?" I shouted back. "You never cared." This time he grabbed me by my T-shirt and slammed me into the wall behind us.

"Because she loves you." He shouted back. "Why are you so blind that you can't see the obvious?"

"How would you know?" I shouted, trying anything to get out of his grip and get back at him for causing me so much pain.

"Cause she told me." He shouted. Now that got my attention and I instantly stopped trying to fight him.

"What?" I whispered.

"You were so mad about me and her getting close that you looked past her feelings for you." He shouted, still infuriated at me. "She thinks she doesn't deserve you because the accident that killed her twin sister and older brother was her fault."

"Let him go Shuichiro." Instantly my body seemed to come to attention as Tezuka stood there before me and Shuichiro. Obviously it caused him great difficulty to do it but he let me go and stared death at me nonetheless.

"What's going on here?" He asked in that voice that no one dared refuse to answer. Shuichiro looked away and I was in no shape to answer either as I worked my jaw, making sure it wasn't broken.

"She loves you, you know." Shuichiro said softly. "But you're just too dumb to see it."

"Dumb?" I asked stepping forward but Shusuke was too fast and stepped in between us.

"Yeah." Shuichiro shouted at me, trying to get around Shusuke too, so much so that Momo had to jump in and him back. "Didn't you just hear what I just said? She honestly doesn't think that she deserves to be happy. Her twin sister and older brother died because of her. How would you feel if that happened to you? How would you cope with something that tragic?"

"I would.." The strangest thing happened to me right then. I lost my voice. The weight of what Shuichiro was saying came crashing down on me and I was too stunned to say anything then.

"I didn't want to tell you." Shuichiro said, anger still lining his voice. "Since she loved you I thought it was only fair for her to tell you herself. These past 2 days I've been trying to get her to talk to you but she won't listen to me."

"You were trying to get her to talk to me?" I almost whispered to myself.

"Yeah." Shuichiro said so angry that in that moment I felt so small and insignificant. "And what do you accuse me of doing?"

"I'm.." I started but Shuichiro waved me off.

"I don't want to hear it." He shouted. "How could think that I would do that? To you of all people? I love you like a brother and that's what you think of me?"

"I didn't mean to…" I tried again.

"Forget it." Shuichiro shouted his face flushed red and his eyes cold and unforgiving. "I've had it with you and your ridiculous assumptions." He threw one last glare at me and I felt in that moment that he hated me more than he was ever capable of hating anyone and that he was never going to forgive me.

It was silent as we all stood around, no one saying anything. No one coming forward to tell me that it was going to be alright and that Shuichiro was going to get over it in an hour because the truth of the matter was that he probably wasn't going to get over this one so easy.

I hung my head and was tempted to slide down the wall and just sit there for the rest of the day and not go anywhere or do anything.

"Let's get to class." Tezuka said after a few minutes had passed. I gathered my stuff up and headed in the general direction I had hoped my class was. How was I ever going to fix this.

* * *

**Ryoma's POV**

I sat there and paced back and forth in the living room, not being able to sit down in one spot for very long. If I knew Alex half as well as I thought I did, she was going to call any moment now. She had to call. I was going out of my mind with worry at the current moment.

I slowed my walk down and counted 12 steps to the other side of the room right where the window was. The phone rang and in an instant reaction, I flew across the room in 2 seconds and answered it.

"Hello." I asked, almost afraid to breathe.

"Hey Ryoma." I heard a happy voice on the other end. "Is your father home?"

"Yes." I said letting out a pent up breath. I handed the phone to my dad and even though he talked for no more than a minute, to me it seemed like he talked for a half hour. He got off the phone and sat down on the couch next to my mother.

"It's alright." My mother said, looking at both of us in turn. "She's going to call." My dad continued to sit there next to her and I couldn't help but start pacing back and forth again. It seemed like she took a lifetime to call and it was a miracle when the phone rang 15 minutes later.

Once again, I raced across the room and answered in one breath.

"Hello." And nothing but silence followed so I tried again. "Hello."

"Ryoma?" Came Alex's voice on the other end, so soft and careful.

"Yes." I said, relieved that she was o.k. "It's me."

"I'm sorry." She said. I knew her so well that in my mind's eye I could see the tears that were forming there already.

"You have nothing to be sorry for." I told her, holding onto the phone and trying to reassure her of that fact.

"You're not a very good liar." She half laughed, half cried.

"I'm not lying." I told her.

"You and I both know that what Leon said last night was true." She said in a quiet voice.

"No." I said, angrily. "Don't you dare listen to Leon."

"Why not?" She asked me forcibly. "Why not listen to him when he's right? He's right about the way I've been acting. I've been acting selfish and only thinking about myself and it's not fair to you, or Nanjiro or Rinko." I closed my eyes and I could almost see her standing there in a beat up old phone booth somewhere downtown and crying like she was, undoubtedly, right now.

"Look. Leon maybe right and he may not be right. But we can figure this out. Together." I willed her to tell me where she was so that dad and I could go and pick her up and I could sleep sound tonight knowing that she was alright.

"No." She said quietly and it felt like a cold hand gripped my heart and squeezed it so tight that I could no longer breath.

"Alex." I said carefully, already knowing what was coming in the back of my mind. "Please don't do anything stupid."

"It won't be anything stupid. I'm just not coming home until I come face to face with you and tell you just how much I miss them."

"No. No. No." I said, frustrated. "We can work through this together. Let me help you. Please." The last word came out choked and I hated myself for being so weak.

"You deserve more then what I'm giving you." She told me quietly on the other end. "We will talk about this when I get home. I promise." There was a click on the other end and the time seemed to freeze for me.

"Alex?" I asked experimentally. When there was no answer, I slammed the phone died and buried my head in my arms. "Ahhh.."

I screamed and flipped over the whole stand that the phone was sitting on. The lamp and everything came crashing to the floor.

"She's not coming home until she faces the accident." I said in small voice.

"Don't worry Ryoma." My dad said softly. "She's a lot stronger then you give her credit for." I shook my head. I just hoped beyond hope that she was going to be alright. There was something in the back of my mind that told me something wasn't quite right.

I shook off the momentary feeling of foreboding and I went to my room. I quickly put on my running shoes and decided that I would run my anger away. How long that would take… I had no idea nor did I care.

* * *

**A/N: **So the fight in the beginning was something that just came into my mind. I've learned from experience that no matter how close you are to someone, if you're stubborn enough and think your right you'll go to any lengths to prove your point sadly =( I hope you enjoy and until next time…


	27. Recovery Pt 1

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Prince of Tennis or any characters

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**Alex's POV**

I stood in that phone booth and cried. I had to be the most horrible person in the world right now. I was putting Ryoma through so much pain and yet, when I got home he would still want to hold me and reassure me that everything was going to be o.k.

Getting out of the phone booth, I blew into my hands that were both beat red. I flexed all my fingers to keep the blood flowing through them and thought of the nice warm bed I had at home and what a nice hot bath would do for my aching muscles.

And yet I still couldn't bring myself to go home. I was ashamed with myself and the only way to get over it was to get over the accident.

I still had no idea how I was going to go about doing that though. It felt like at that moment I was completely alone in the world. My heart felt like it weighed 50 pounds and it was getting hard to walk but I had to keep moving because if I stopped in one place for too long it was as if my whole world was going to come to a screeching halt. If that happened, I didn't know what I was going to do.

So I kept on walking without ever looking up to see where my feet were taking me and only 20 mins later did I realize where I was. I was in front of that same music shop that I left about 14 hours ago.

I looked down the street to see the old man coming up the street with some keys in his hand. I stood across the street for 10 minutes after he opened his shop and when I could no longer bear the thought of a nice warm climate inside I walked across the street and entered.

Of course the old man was right there and when I walked in a small smile began to reach his face but when he took in the look of me, the smile quickly disappeared.

"Have you been out all night?" He asked, obviously angry with me.

"I.." I said, my throat oddly parched. "I can't go home." I told him with tears stinging my eyes.

"What's the matter that you can't go home?" He asked kindly.

"I'm not strong enough to face them." I said, warm tears streaking down my cold face.

"Have you eaten anything?" He asked. I shook my head and he made a quick phone call. I didn't hear what he was saying but when he hung up the phone he looked at me seriously. "Go sit down over there and wait."

I didn't feel like arguing with him so I did as I was told. What didn't feel like 20 minutes later, the bell over the door went off and I looked up to see a youth probably not much older then I was.

"Thank you for coming in on your day off." The old man said, smiling warmly.

"Not a problem. It sounds as if you really need me today." He caught sight of me and he looked at me skeptically.

"I need you to look after the store for me while I run a couple of important errands." The old man said.

"Yes sir." The youth said and took his place behind the counter.

"Come with me young lady." I don't know why I followed him. I mean, when I was younger my mom drilled into my head that you weren't supposed to go with strangers. It was just one of those golden rules that you just follow when you grow up. But here I was, following an old man I had only ever met 3 times in my life.

I followed him to his car, which was high class for a guy who runs a music store. He unlocked all the doors and I climbed in the back seat.

We drove for what felt like forever and even though I should've been worried, I still wasn't. We were now driving down a country lane lined with many trees on both sides and I marveled at each house as we passed.

Each house was bigger than the next and I had to wonder what kind of people could possibly live in them. I began to fantasize about stars and singers and famous people when he made a sharp left that almost sent me into the door. I looked to see where we were and it was the most beautiful house I had ever laid eyes on and when a servant came rushing to my door to open it for me, I kind of felt awkward.

"Welcome home sir." The butler said, making a 90 degree bow. "And your guest." He added politely. I got out of the back of the car and the butler took over the car, probably driving it back to the garage.

"Is my wife home?" He asked the butler before he closed the car door.

"Yes. She's tending to the green house, sir." I followed the old man up the stairs and marveled even more at the beauty of the large open space that was the front foyer. There were stair cases on both sides, running up to the second floor that also had a balcony overlooking the foyer and a large chandelier hanging in the middle.

The walls were a soft peach color that set my mind at ease and I just began to realize how tired I really was. I stifled a yawn and began to follow the old man through the living room and through the kitchen out to the back where there was a very large greenhouse that didn't even take up a quarter of their large yard.

"Why don't you stay here and I'll call the chef for something to eat." He smiled. I nodded in silence. Now I really had to begin to wonder why he was being so nice to me.

He rang a bell and we only had to wait a few seconds before a tall, thick muscled man came into the kitchen from a side door that I hadn't noticed until now.

"Sato." The old man said.

"Sir." Sato said, bowing.

"I need you to make this young lady something to eat. Anything she wants." The chef bowed and turned to me and I felt my face go hot as he waited for me to tell him something to make.

"Umm. Just a ham omelet is fine." I said, more or so to the floor. It didn't take Sato long to make me the best omelet I had ever had. I never realized how hungry I was till I scarffed down the omelet and drank the glass of milk.

"Thank you Sato." Said a kind elderly voice, I looked up to see the old man and apparently his wife standing in the door. The wife also had to be in her 80's because she looked so frail that I had to wonder how she made it around the house.

She stood there and examined me with knowing eyes and I felt like she was looking right into my very soul. I got goose bumps on my arms and the chills ran up my spine.

"I'm sorry for what has happened to you." She told me now looking at me with pity in her eyes and that in itself caused my face to get hot with anger. "But you will soon be cured of what is troubling your soul and causing your heart pain." She now smiled like the whole world was fine and this was the part where I start getting scared. Maybe I shouldn't have come here after all.

"Come." The old lady said. "I have some clothes that will fit you after you shower and clean." I got up tentatively and followed the both of them up the stairs and down the hallway to a back bedroom.

"You can stay in this room for the time being." The old man said. "When you've showered and changed, come downstairs and find us." And with that, I was left alone and again for the second time that day I felt completely alone. Not wanting to think too much about the old lady and what she had said, I took a 10 minute shower and threw on the jeans and t-shirt she had left me. It was strange, the jeans seemed to fit me perfectly and the shirt hung just right on me. I examined myself in the mirror and noticing the brush on the dresser in front of me, I quickly ran it through my hair and rushed downstairs.

"… Reminds me so much of her, it's uncanny." The old man was saying.

"Do you think she'll be here when he gets home? No telling how he might react seeing her." The old women commented.

"Probably." The old man said, taking a sip of his tea. They were having tea in the living room just enjoying each others company. "I think that whatever is troubling her is going to take a while to fix." They sat in silence for a moment and I decided that it was time I made myself known so I cleared my throat and walked into the room.

"Thank you so much for letting me stay here." I said to both of them, tucking my hair behind one ear. "It really means a lot to me."

"Not a problem." The old man said. "Anything to help you along so I may once again listen to that beautiful piano playing." I stood there for a moment, not sure what to do now.

"Come with me." The old man said, sipping the last remnants out of his glass. "I have something for you." Wondering what it was, I followed him down the hallway in the back and smiled to myself once I knew where we were going. The doors on each side of me all revealed soundproof music rooms, each with a piano in it.

"I call this last room the recovery room." He said with a wink. I didn't even need to think twice about why he called it that. I walked into the room and there was an upright in the middle of the room, a window on the left and sheet music and books strewn everywhere.

"Was this room recently used?" I asked, taking a book off the top of the piano and studying the cover. _John Thompson's Modern Course for the Piano._

"You could say that." He shrugged. "This is the room that my grandson uses when he's here. Mind you he's not here too often." I took a look at other random books and wondered what it was that I'm supposed to be doing here besides the very obvious.

"How old is your grandson?" I asked, looking at some of the songs on some of the sheet music on the floor.

"He's 23." The old man sounded almost sad when he answered and I quickly turned to him to see if I had offended him in any way, but instead he was holding a baseball bat. I could feel the blood in my veins slowly turn to ice as I thought about the mistake I may have made in coming here and instantly my mind screamed for Ryoma.

"You know," He said, looking at the baseball bat with a faraway look in his eyes. "My son went through a serious accident and it broke my heart to think that he might not ever play again. That's why I'm determined to help you now." And then he did the strangest thing, he offered me the bat. I couldn't help but look at him like he was crazy.

"What am I supposed to do with that?" I asked, not taking it from him.

"I think you know as well as I do." He smiled that mischievous smile that said he knew far more than I did, which he did. It took me another minute to get his drift and then it hit me. He wanted me to take out all my frustration on the piano itself.

"I can't." I said in small voice. "It's not even my property."

"You're right." He said pretending to think about it. "It's my property. And I want you to succeed in getting over whatever it is that is causing this stand still in your music career." He walked to the door and leaned the bat against the wall before he stood in the door way.

"I still don't think I can do it." I told him looking down at the floor. "It wouldn't be right."

"My dear," He simply said. "We can build thousands of pianos. What's more important here is your sanity. What's more, it helps if you take a seat at the piano and just play whatever it is that comes to your mind. Don't think about it, just play."

And then he shut me in the sound proof room with nothing but the books and piano for company. Which I don't think really counted.

"Don't think, just play." I whispered, sitting down at the piano and doing a quick scale. The piano sounded marvelous and I instantly started getting goose bumps and my heart already felt lighter than it had in a year.

Without really meaning to, I started thinking about all the problems that playing the piano had caused and started asking myself what would've been if I had just stuck with tennis.

"Stop." I told myself hitting my head with my hands and I tried to start again. I thought about all the good times that the piano had brought me and I thought about Alice and how happy she would get hearing her favorite song. I wanted to play but my fingers seemed to be frozen over the keys and I couldn't get them to move. I sat there and stared at my fingers, hovering over the keys. Useless.

I closed my eyes and tried to breathe in through my nose and out through my mouth. It was no use, nothing was working.

"I need your help Alice." I whispered, choking it out over the lump in my throat.

"_Took you long enough to call." A sweet voice said next to me. I jerked around to see Alice sitting next to me at the piano. _

"_Am I dreaming?" I asked, looking around me. "Or am I losing my mind?" _

"_It's all a matter of how you percept a dream." Alice said, laughing at me. "But I knew that you would call sooner or later but I just wished that it wasn't so much later." _

_I stared at Alice, not being able to tear my eyes away from her perfect form. I felt like I could die just as happy just staying here with her and then the tears came. _

"_No no no." Alice said reaching up and wiping my tears away. "There's no time for water-works little sister." _

"_Only by 4 mins." I pouted and l began to laugh in spite of myself. _

"_Still doesn't change who's older." And then I cried as hard as the day she passed. _

"_I can't do this by myself." I cried. "I can't do this by myself. I don't want to." _

"_You can. And you must." Alice said, resting her head on my shoulder. "Now let's hear that beautiful song of yours that I love so much." _

_I adjusted on the stool and arranged my fingers so I could start playing but my fingers wouldn't listen to me. It was like they were someone else's hands and not my own. _

"_Don't think." Alice said whispering in my ear, sending the hairs on the back my neck to straighten. And she kept on whispering until my mind was clear and my fingers started moving on their own. The sound was beautiful but it was like I was hearing the sound through water and I was just focused on moving my fingers. _

_When the song ended, I felt refreshed and more alive than I had in a year. Then a thought came to me and I smiled so brightly at Alice that she probably thought I was crazy. _

"_What?" She asked wearily. _

"_You're here." I told her. _

"_Yes." She said looking around to see if anyone else was in the room with us. "I am." _

"_If you're here, then that means that Brian can come." I told her and kept on smiling at her like an idiot. _

"_Yes, well. You and me are twins so I think a certain rule applies here." She said carefully. _

"_What do you mean?" I asked, the smile fading a little. _

"_Well, me and you were always meant to be one entity. So where ever you are I am, kinda thing." I still wasn't grasping the concept she was trying to get at but one thing was being made clear to me. _

"_Doesn't he want to come?" I whispered, staring at her so intently that she had to look away. _

"_Of course he wants to come." She told me. "But some things can't.." _

"_Then why doesn't he just come?" I shouted, standing up and storming to other side of the room. "He doesn't really want to come does he?" _

"_No. Alex, listen. It's not that…" But all I could think about was my anger and hurt that Brian didn't want to come and see me. Even in the afterlife he was taking his piano grudge above and beyond. _

My eyes flew open and I all I noticed was my cramping muscles, realizing that I had fallen asleep right at the piano and that it was now dusk outside. How had a conversation in my dream taken no longer 3 minutes there, but here in the real world I had slept most of the day away?

I tried harder to thing about it but then I remembered why I was so angry in the first place and noticed the bat by the wall.

Without really thinking about it, I grabbed the bat and started swinging it as hard as I could at the piano.

"I hate you." I shouted as loud as my lungs would allow. "Why did you have to be so stubborn? Why don't you want to come and see me?" I lost how many times I had swung the bat at 12 but continued to shout.

"Don't you love me anymore?" I screamed. And then I cried again. Boy was I doing a lot of crying in the last 24 hours.

Too tired to swing anymore I sunk down on the far wall and cried uncontrollably at the hurt and the loss and rejection that I felt that Brian didn't want to come and see me.

"I hate you." I whispered before falling into another dreamless state, all the worries of the last few days seemed to melt away and I allowed the complete darkness to engulf me.

**A/N: So I bet no one is going to guess who the old guy is 0.0 I kind of just thought of him in a random moment and changed my chapter drastically but I hope you like him as much I did writing him..Until next time..  
To xDevilishAngelx, You are completely right about Ryoma. I didn't realize until now so hopefully before I get my next chapter up I can fix that. Thank you and I hope you all enjoy =)  
**


	28. Recovery Pt 2

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Prince of Tennis or any characters

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**A/N: **I must be the worst author there possibly is. I had a serious writers block and I've been super busy at work too. I changed a couple previous chapters so that the story hopefully makes sense now. I changed them so that the accident has only take place a year ago, putting Ryoma in 9th grade. So's he's not old enough to join them in high school yet. Anyway. Here's the newest chapter. Hope you all like and hopefully the story makes more sense now. **  
**

**Ryoma's POV**

I don't really know why I had come here, but this was the only place that my legs would carry me. I had run so much and so hard that my legs literally felt like jelly but I had business to take of here.

The school bell rang and 2 minutes later, kids were filing out in a huge mass. I noticed some of the guys among the crowd but I was looking for one specific person.

"Hey Ryoma." Momo said, coming up and hitting me on the shoulder. "What are you doing here?" I didn't answer him though. Through my rage and tiredness, it was like I was hearing him at the other end of a dark tunnel.

We were soon joined by Oishi, Tezuka, Sadaharu, and Shusuke. They were all trying to figure out what I was doing there when I saw him. Leon.

Without thinking, I started walking towards him and right when he turned to see me coming, I punched him square in the jaw. All the people that were walking out of the school stopped, all the guys had followed me over here and were now in shock that I had actually done that.

"What the hell?" Leon screamed at me.

"Do you have any idea what you've done?" I screamed back at him and lunging at him. I had a hold of his shirt around the collar and I was trying to force him to the ground. "She's not coming back all because of you." I shouted again and took another swing at him.

My whole world felt empty without Alex around and that emptiness just reminded me of how much I truly missed Brian and Alice. With Alex around, I could push that emptiness away because she needed me to be strong. Brian had asked me to take care of her and so I did what I had to do to be strong for her but now she was gone and I felt that if I stopped running today, all the pain and hurt and confusion that I had been shutting the door on all these years was going to suffocate me.

"What do you mean she's gone?" Leon yelled, trying to dodge my fist and gain some leverage on me.

"I mean she's not coming back. She called this morning to tell me." I tried to hit him in the face some more but he was getting around my blind rage swings so I stuck my foot behind him and shoved as hard as I could. Success was mine when he stumbled and lost his footing, crashing to the ground. Without thinking about it, I jumped on top of him and got 2 good hits in before I felt arms go around me and pull me off of him.

"You need to stop." Shusuke yelled at me from behind. "Alex is strong. She'll pull through this."

"This doesn't concern you." I tried to get out of his grip and back at Leon who was just sitting on the ground staring at me now. "I need her." I didn't even notice the tears that were now coming due to my rage and hurt.

"She'll come back." Shusuke said, still yanking me away from Leon.

"Let go." I shouted. "This is all his fault." Momo quickly helped Leon to his feet and shoved his back pack in his arms.

"Go." He said forcefully. "Get out of here." He began to push Leon away but Leon was watching me. I couldn't tear my eyes off him and if it wasn't for the guys I would still be beating the life out of him right now.

"I said get out of here." Momo shouted jarring Leon out of his state of shock, seeing me the way I currently was. Momo gave Leon one more good shove and he started walking away.

"I hate you." I screamed after. "I wish you had never come here. You ruined everything I had ever worked for in the past year." I had begun struggling against Shusuke so much that we had both crashed to the ground and I was just screaming uselessly now.

"What happened?" Shuichiro asked, kneeling on the ground to look at me. "After she ran from the music store, what happened?" I looked him in the eyes and saw that he was just as worried for her as I was and I admitted defeat. Shusuke loosened his grip on me for a minute and then when he knew that I wasn't going to do anything more, he completely let me go.

"Is it just me or this a day for everyone's anger to come out in full force today?" He asked leaning backwards on his hands as he continued to sit next to me.

"I don't know what happened to her after she stormed off yesterday." I told Oishi in small voice. "But she called me this morning to tell me that she wasn't coming home until she got over.. it." I choked on the last word. I was going to say accident, but I couldn't get that word out. It was as if my world was slowly slipping out of my hands and there was nothing I could do about it.

"Don't worry." Oishi said. "I believe Alex is strong enough to make it through this. If she said she'll come back healed then she'll come back healed."

"This isn't only about Alex." I screamed and jumped to my feet. "What about me. I need her. I have to keep my promise to Brian. I promised him that I would protect her." I shouted at Oishi and he was staring at me like he didn't know who I was. I then looked at the other guys around too and realized that I had never once shown my vulnerable side to any of them before, even when I had been under immense pressure to win in tennis matches.

But this.. This was something completely different. I couldn't hold it in any longer. Tears began to pour down my face again and I felt ashamed that the guys were seeing me this way. I turned and began to run again, ignoring the yelling of my name.

I ran until my entire body felt like it was on fire and then I ran some more. I couldn't stop. If I stopped it felt as though my body would spontaneously combust where I stood.

I found myself at the park that me and Alex had come to on my mother's birthday and I ran to bridge where we had stood that night talking about parties and old times back in the states.

"Ryoma." I looked up to see Tezuka, Oishi and Eiji standing there hardly out of breath.

"Leave me alone." I shouted at them. I made to keep running but my legs gave out on me and all I could do was let the tears come and sit there on my knee's on the ground.

"C'mon man." Eiji tried to help me to my feet but I pushed him away and let out a scream of all my frustrations I could possibly muster.

"I need to run." I shouted. "If I stay still I'll fall apart." I knew I was spouting nonsense and I didn't make any sense whatsoever but Tezuka and Oishi helped me to my feet and the 4 of us ran together. Every time I thought I was going to fall, one of the guys would catch me and push me to go on a little bit longer.

Finally, after 4 miles, I collapsed and couldn't even so much as move a muscle. I laid there and I cried. I cried probably as hard as I did by myself that day in the hospital when Brian had passed. It just wasn't fair.

"She wasn't supposed to leave." I told them between hiccups. It was an amazement that they even understood what I had just said.

"She's trying to heal herself." Oishi said, sitting down next to me.

"She doesn't want to depend on you to be strong for her. She wants to be strong by herself." Eiji said, sitting down on the other side of me.

"It's obvious that you care for her but maybe this is the best medicine there is for her." Tezuka said sitting down next to me after I rolled over to look at the clear blue sky above, the fresh tears running down the side of my face and into my hair.

"You guys don't understand." I said through more hiccups. "I need her."

"And maybe this is the best medicine for you." Tezuka said in a gentle tone. I closed my eyes and cried some more, I felt so weak.

"You know." Oishi said. "I thought I wanted to know about her but the pain that you 2 are going through, I can only fathom."

We all sat there in a silence as I cried and tried to will the tears to stop but to no avail.

"You know you can talk to us about anything, right?" Eiji said, after the tears were coming less frequently. And with those words, the floodgates opened.

"I thought Alex and Alice were going to go on to be unstoppable." I whispered. "They were so natural and graceful. From the time that they were old enough to walk they were always in sync, I mean that's what you expect from twins right? When they were on the court, in the same uniform, even I couldn't tell them apart. But then when Alex was in 8th grade, she discovered the piano and it was like she was a natural born player. Right before I came over here for a year to play tennis was when she started and when I got back it was like she had been playing all her life."

"When she plays, it's like she's playing right to your soul. It changes you on the inside, even if you have no passion for music you are changed for the better. When I got back, her and Brian's relationship was on the rocks and I was surprised at how he was acting towards her. I never thought in a million years he would give her the silent treatment."

"This only went on for another month but to me it felt like 6. After about another 2 months went by it almost seemed like they were going to talk again, they were so close to fixing their relationship, so close. But then the accident happened, on the day of the finals it was going to be Alex's opener to kick start her career as a piano player. All the biggest names in music were going to be there. I don't think there has ever been so many famous people at one person's concert ever. But at the last minute she decided to give it up."

"She and her dad raced to the stadium where Alice and Brian were going to play but when she got there, they weren't there. She played her heart out at the Nationals for Alice and Brian but they would never make it. I promised Brian in that hospital room that I would take care of Alex. So I pushed my anguish away for her, so that I could be strong. So I could be the person she needed me to be, so she could lean on me whenever she felt like she couldn't go on."

I had cried so much that I thought it was impossible for me to cry anymore but woe and behold, more tears were coming.

"I wished she had told me about her dad sooner, I wish she had told me what he was doing to her. It wasn't fair that he was putting all the blame on her or putting his hands on her."

"What?" Eiji asked.

"A week before we came back here me and my dad had gone to Charlie's house and found out that he was beating her. That night, he almost broke her arm. I don't know what would've happened to her if me and my dad hadn't shown up."

"How could he do such a thing." Eiji said through gritted teeth.

"I think that's most of the reason she blames herself for what happened. No matter what I tell her, she has it stuck in her mind that she's to blame for that accident."

"I had no idea she was shouldering so much pain." Tezuka whispered.

"She doesn't like to talk about it." I told them all. With the last reserves of my strength I tried to stand up. "I better get home in case she calls me sometime soon."

The 3 of them helped me home and it seemed like as soon as I hit the couch I was already sleeping. The one last thought that went through my head before I let the darkness engulf me was hoping that she didn't take too long to call.

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**Alex's POV**

By the time I came to I was lying on a soft mattress under some very comfortable blankets. I looked around and took in my surroundings and remembered that I had been in that old man's house. I remembered smashing his piano to bits and I felt myself blush.

I got up and stretched out all my aching muscles and stared down at my fingers. I remembered being angry enough to smash the piano but trying to recall why I was so angry, I couldn't remember. I remembered that I was able to play just a little but trying to remember that as well, I couldn't.

Shaking my head, I opened my door and went down the hall. I heard a lot of voices and felt like I was intruding on something important.

"It's been so long since I seen you." I heard the old man say.

"As busy with his piano career then ever." I heard a younger male say.

"That's enough you 2." I heard the old lady scolding them. I peeked around the door frame to see that there were 2 other people sitting at the table with the old man and lady.

"Ahh." The old man said, seeing me peeking around the corner. "It seems our guest has finally awoken." He stood up and so did the other 2 boys that were at the table.

"I, um, just came down for something to drink." I told them, realizing how parched my mouth felt.

"Come, join us for tea won't you?" He asked politely.

"I don't want to intrude." I whispered lightly to them.

"Nonsense." The old man waved it aside. "You can meet my grand kids." He smiled so warmly that there was no way I could refuse. As I came into the room, both boys seemed to stare at me like I was something out of the ordinary. With them both staring at me, I felt a little embarrassed.

"Boys." The old lady said politely. "It's not nice to stare." It seemed to cause them both a great deal of pain but they both looked away and I sat next to the old man.

"I'm sorry about your piano." I whispered.

"Nonsense. You did exactly what I wanted you to do to it." He smiled. "And now do you feel better." I nodded and almost laughed.

"These are my grandson's Kei and Rei." For the first time, I realized that I was staring at 2 twin boys who were probably older then I was and all I could do was stare at them. "And here comes my son now." I looked to the man that was standing in the doorway with a tray of tea and my breath caught in my throat.

I couldn't believe that I was in the same room as Asashi Sasaki. He seemed to stare at me for a moment and then came into the room and set the tea set down.

"My dad says that you play piano better than I do." He said, starting to pour the tea. He handed the 1st cup to his dad and then the 2nd to his mother.

"I think that's a bit of an exaggeration." I told him, my face feeling oddly hot.

"If it's not too much to ask, could I maybe hear a sample?" He finally looked me in the eye and for some reason, I saw nothing but sadness. I took the cup from him but he continued to stare at me.

"I'm not sure that's a good idea at the current moment." I found the strength to tell him. I looked at his 2 sons and saw that they were both on the edge of their seats. Something was going on here and it made me uncomfortable that I didn't know what it was.

"You look like my mother." One of the twins said abruptly, causing me to look at him. "She committed suicide a year ago." The breath caught in my throat and my heart began to ache.

"I'm sorry." I said, putting my teacup down and standing up. "I really don't think I should be here." Hot tears started filling my eyes and I made to go back upstairs, away from them and their pain.

"It's o.k." Arashi said, catching my hand and making me stop. "We've… Accepted it." I looked at the 2 boys and it was like their sadness was going to wash over me any minute.

"I have to play the piano." I said. I don't know why I had said that to them, they weren't even in my mind but without thinking, I yanked out of his grip and started down the hall to one of the music rooms. I was aware that the whole family was following me but that didn't bother me.

I went to the first door and entered, sitting down at the piano and doing a quick scale. I never remembered my fingers feeling so tingly before and I had to smile. I let my fingers just hover there for a couple of minutes and it even felt like the family was holding their breaths.

I almost started playing Alice's favorite song but quickly stopped. This song was not for me, it was for them, for their mother.

So I played 'Kiss the Rain' by Yiruma. I thought of my mother and her happy smiles in the day's right before her death and even though I wanted to cry for her, I didn't. I closed my eyes and played the song that I knew by heart and I couldn't help the smile that was creeping onto my face.

I felt a warmness creep into my heart and I finally felt that peace coming to me that I always used to be able to find in the piano before the accident.

I thought about all the times my mother had nursed me back to health when I was sick and how she had helped me to perfect this piece for a recital that I had done on Mother's Day so long ago. I thought about her touch when she would stroke my hair while we laid together on the couch, the way she rubbed my back and helped to put the broken pieces of my heart back together after Kale had dumped me in the 8th grade.

As the song was coming to an end, I thought about how much I was truly missing her and then I finally cried. The tears came so easily and when I played the final note, I didn't feel sad that she was gone but I felt happy that I could cry for her and the pain in my heart seemed to lessen just a bit.

I opened my eyes and smiled at the family of 5 that was watching me so intently, all of 5 whom were crying along with me.

"That was beautiful." The old lady cried, her husband holding onto her. "My Kanae would've loved that piece."

"That was my mother's favorite song." I told them, smiling.

"I think my father was right about you being better than me." Arashi said, wiping away his tears as well.

"I'm really not that great." I said, putting my hands back on the piano. "I'm too damaged to play."

"I don't know what you're talking about." One of the twins said. "That was awesome." I smiled one more time and lowered the lid on the piano.

"The tea is getting cold." I told them and we all started moving towards the door. As I got to the door, there was a slight breeze that blew through the open window that sent a chill down my spine. I shook it off and went back to close the window, light snow flakes coming in and melting as soon as they hit the surface of the window sill.

"I love you mom." I whispered. "And I miss you more than I can ever say. I hope you know that." I quickly blinked the tears away and went to join the family for tea, closing the door on the piano.


End file.
